1. Academic Validation
  2. Identification of small molecules acting against H1N1 influenza A virus

Identification of small molecules acting against H1N1 influenza A virus

  • Virology. 2016 Jan 15;488:249-58. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2015.11.024.
Mariangela Agamennone 1 Agostina Pietrantoni 2 Fabiana Superti 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Pharmacy, University "G. d'Annunzio", Via dei Vestini 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
  • 2 Department of Technology and Health, National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
  • 3 Department of Technology and Health, National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: fabiana.superti@iss.it.
Abstract

Influenza Virus represents a serious threat to public health. The lack of effective drugs against flu prompted researchers to identify more promising viral target. In this respect hemagglutinin (HA) can represent an interesting option because of its pivotal role in the Infection process. With this aim we collected a small library of commercially available compounds starting from a large database and performing a diversity-based selection to reduce the number of screened compounds avoiding structural redundancy of the library. Selected compounds were tested for their hemagglutination-inhibiting (HI) ability against two different A/H1N1 viral strains (one of which is oseltamivir sensitive), and 17 of them showed the ability to interact with HA. Five drug-like molecules, in particular, were able to impair hemagglutination of both A/H1N1 viral strains under study and to inhibit cytopathic effect and hemolysis at sub-micromolar level.

Keywords

Diverse library; Fusion peptide; Hemagglutinin; Hemolysis; Influenza.

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