Anti-Influenza Drug Targets Nucleoprotein

Drug developers have identified a low molecular weight compound, nucleozin, which was shown to be a potent antiviral agent with the potential to become a primary drug for treating influenza infections.

Investigators at the University of Hong Kong (China) screened a chemical library of more than 50,000 compounds for those with anti-influenza activity. Ultimately, they selected nucleozin for further characterization, as it was highly potent in cell culture and also in mice infected with the pathogenic influenza virus H5N1.

In the influenza virus, nucleoprotein plays critical roles in RNA replication and genome assembly, and nucleozin was shown to aggregate nucleoprotein and prevent its transport into the nucleus. This blocked replication of H1N1, H3N2, and H5N1 viruses in cell culture experiments and protected mice against H5N1. These findings were published in the May 30, 2010, online edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology.

First author Dr. Richard Y. Kao, professor of microbiology at the University Honk Kong, said, "Nucleozin is highly potent in cell culture and also in mice infected with the highly pathogenic influenza virus H5N1. Scientists could now use nucleoprotein as a target to develop antiviral therapeutics for the treatment of influenza infection.”

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