Suramin is a potent inhibitor of Chikungunya and Ebola virus cell entry
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RESEARCH
Open Access
Suramin is a potent inhibitor of Chikungunya and Ebola virus cell entry Lisa Henß1, Simon Beck1, Tatjana Weidner1, Nadine Biedenkopf2,3, Katja Sliva1, Christopher Weber1, Stephan Becker2,3 and Barbara S. Schnierle1*
Abstract Background: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that causes high fever, rash, and recurrent arthritis in humans. It has efficiently adapted to Aedes albopictus, which also inhabits temperate regions and currently causes large outbreaks in the Caribbean and Latin America. Ebola virus (EBOV) is a member of the filovirus family. It causes the Ebola virus disease (EDV), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever in humans and has a mortality rate of up to 70 %. The last outbreak in Western Africa was the largest in history and has caused approximately 25,000 cases and 10,000 deaths. For both viral infections no specific treatment or licensed vaccine is currently available. The bis-hexasulfonated naphthylurea, suramin, is used as a treatment for trypanosome-caused African river blindness. As a competitive inhibitor of heparin, suramin has been described to have anti-viral activity. Methods: We tested the activity of suramin during CHIKV or Ebola virus infection, using CHIKV and Ebola envelope glycoprotein pseudotyped lentiviral vectors and wild-type CHIKV and Ebola virus. Results: Suramin efficiently inhibited CHIKV and Ebola envelope-mediated gene transfer while vesicular stomatitis virus G protein pseudotyped vectors were only marginally affected. In addition, suramin was able to inhibit wild-type CHIKV and Ebola virus replication in vitro. Inhibition occurred at early time points during CHIKV infection. Conclusion: Suramin, also known as Germanin or Bayer-205, is a market-authorized drug, however shows significant side effects, which probably prevents its use as a CHIKV drug, but due to the high lethality of Ebola virus infections, suramin might be valuable against Ebola infections. Keywords: Chikungunya virus, Ebola virus, Suramin
Background The Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquitotransmitted alphavirus that causes flu-like symptoms and arthritis. In about 30 % of cases arthritis can last for months or even years, which may cause substantial economic losses [1, 2]. The virus currently spreads from Africa and the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean and Latin America and is now responsible for large, still-ongoing outbreaks with 1.7 million suspected cases as of October 2014 (www.cdc.gov). The mortality rate is very low (0.1 %), but the infection rates are high (about 30 %) and asymptomatic cases are rare (about 15 %) [3]. Due to climate change, globalization, and vector switching, the * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Virology, Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Paul-Ehrlich Strasse 51-59, 63225 Langen, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
virus will most likely continue to cause new, worldwide outbreaks also in more temperate regions like Europe or the USA [4, 5]. In contrast, Ebola virus (EBOV
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