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 confirm the antiviral activity of benzavir-2, we shifted to the therapeutically relevant wt ZIKV and conducted a plaque formation assay in a dose-dependent manner, using benzavir-2 (from 20 to 0.6 µM) and ribavirin (from 200 to 6.3 µM) against the Brazilian ZIKV strain. Benzavir-2 showed a significant reduction of plaque formation at all applied concentrations, while ribavirin showed a significant inhibition at 200 µM ( Figure 3A) . To examine the plaque inhibition activity of benzavir-2 against another ZIKV lineage, we used the African ZIKV (African MR766, Uganda strain) [41, 42] . Previously, the plaque formation of these strains was described and quantification of plaque formation is ideal when assessing antiviral compounds, since the endpoint read-out, plaque formation includes the full infection cycle [43] . Benzavir-2 showed a significant inhibition of plaque formation at 2.5 µM for both ZIKV lineages, 94% for the African, and 88% reduction for the Asian lineage.