A novel antiviral formulation inhibits a range of enveloped viruses.

Nicola F Fletcher; Luke W Meredith; Emma L Tidswell; Steven R Bryden; Daniel Gonçalves-Carneiro; Yasmin Chaudhry; Claire Shannon-Lowe; Michael A Folan; Daniella A Lefteri; Marieke Pingen; Dalan Bailey; Clive S McKimmie; Alan W Baird

Pseudoviruses were generated bearing the envelope glycoproteins of Zika virus strain PE243, a Brazilian strain, and the ability of ViroSAL to inhibit pseudovirus entry together with the full-length infectious clone of Zika virus strains PE243 and MR766, an African strain, were compared. ViroSAL inhibited both Zika virus pseudovirus and similar to Zika virus, a higher concentration of ViroSAL (3%) was required for complete neutralization of full-length viruses compared to pseudoviruses. Treatment with 3% ViroSAL did not result in cytotoxicity, measured using MTT assays (data not shown). This indicates that ViroSAL is capable of fully neutralizing a range of enveloped viruses in vitro, at a concentration that does not cause cytotoxicity in eukaryotic cells.