Identification and biochemical characterization of small-molecule inhibitors of west nile virus serine protease by a high-throughput screen.

ABSTRACT: West Nile virus and dengue virus are mosquito-borne flaviviruses that cause a large number of human infections each year. No vaccines or chemotherapeutics are currently available. These viruses encode a serine protease that is essential for polyprotein processing, a required step in the viral replication cycle. In this study, a high-throughput screening assay for the West Nile virus protease was employed to screen approximately 32,000 small-molecule compounds for identification of inhibitors. Lead inhibitor compounds with three distinct core chemical structures (1 to 3) were identified. In a secondary screening of selected compounds, two compounds, belonging to the 8-hydroxyquinoline family (compounds A and B) and containing core structure 1, were identified as potent inhibitors of the Wes

SUBMITTER: Mueller NH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2533463 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature