Antiviral Activity of Benzavir-2 against Emerging Flaviviruses

Gwon, Yong-Dae; Strand, Mårten; Lindqvist, Richard; Nilsson, Emma; Saleeb, Michael; Elofsson, Mikael; Överby, Anna K.; Evander, Magnus

To obtain insight into the mode-of-action of benzavir-2, a time-of-addition experiment was performed. Vero B4 cells were infected with rZIKV-ZsGreen and benzavir-2 was added at different time points; pre-treatment (−2 to 0 h) for every second hour in 2 h pulses (0-2 h, 2-4 h, 4-6 h, or 6-8 h) To further quantify the antiviral effect, we harvested the supernatant on day 4, post-progeny virus transfer, and the viral RNA from the supernatant was measured using qRT-PCR. The reduction of the virus RNA copy number in the supernatant from benzavir-2 treated cells was 10 2.7 -fold (African ZIKV) and 10 3.9 -fold (Brazilian ZIKV) ( Figure 4D ). To conclude, benzavir-2 at 2.5 µM efficiently inhibited the production of the infectious progeny virus.