Identification of novel compounds inhibiting chikungunya virus-induced cell death by high throughput screening of a kinase inhibitor library.

Abstract

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne arthrogenic alphavirus that causes acute febrile illness in humans accompanied by joint pains and in many cases, persistent arthralgia lasting weeks to years. The re-emergence of CHIKV has resulted in numerous outbreaks in the eastern hemisphere, and threatens to expand in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, no effective treatment is currently available. The present study reports the use of resazurin in a cell-based high-throughput assay, and an image-based high-content assay to identify and characterize inhibitors of CHIKV-infection in vitro. CHIKV is a highly cytopathic virus that rapidly kills infected cells. Thus, cell viability of HuH-7 cells infected with CHIKV in the presence of compounds was determined by measuring metabolic reduction of resazurin to identify inhibitors of CHIKV-associated cell death. A kinase inhibitor library of 4,000 compounds was screened against CHIKV infection of HuH-7 cells using the resazurin reduction assay, and the cell toxicity was also measured in non-infected cells. Seventy-two compounds showing ≥50% inhibition property against CHIKV at 10 µM were selected as primary hits. Four compounds having a benzofuran core scaffold (CND0335, CND0364, CND0366 and CND0415), one pyrrolopyridine (CND0545) and one thiazol-carboxamide (CND3514) inhibited CHIKV-associated cell death in a dose-dependent manner, with EC50 values between 2.2 µM and 7.1 µM. Based on image analysis, these 6 hit compounds did not inhibit CHIKV replication in the host cell. However, CHIKV-infected cells manifested less prominent apoptotic blebs typical of CHIKV cytopathic effect compared with the control infection. Moreover, treatment with these compounds reduced viral titers in the medium of CHIKV-infected cells by up to 100-fold. In conclusion, this cell-based high-throughput screening assay using resazurin, combined with the image-based high content assay approach identified compounds against CHIKV having a novel antiviral activity--inhibition of virus-induced CPE--likely by targeting kinases involved in apoptosis.

• Authors: Deu John M Cruz, Rafaela M Bonotto, Rafael G B Gomes, Camila T da Silva, Juliana B Taniguchi, Joo Hwan No, Benoit Lombardot, Olivier Schwartz, Michael A E Hansen, Lucio H Freitas-Junior
• Journal: PLoS neglected tropical diseases (PLoS Negl Trop Dis) Vol. 7 Issue 10 Pg. e2471 ( 2013) ISSN: 1935-2735 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 24205414 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antiviral Agents
• Oxazines
• Protein Kinase Inhibitors
• Xanthenes
• resazurin

Topics

• Alphavirus Infections (drug therapy, virology)
• Antiviral Agents (isolation & purification)
• Cell Death
• Cell Line
• Cell Survival (drug effects)
• Chikungunya virus (physiology)
• Hepatocytes (drug effects, physiology, virology)
• High-Throughput Screening Assays (methods)
• Humans
• Inhibitory Concentration 50
• Optical Imaging (methods)
• Oxazines (metabolism)
• Oxidation-Reduction
• Protein Kinase Inhibitors (isolation & purification, pharmacology)
• Staining and Labeling (methods)
• Xanthenes (metabolism)