In recent years, infectious diseases caused by viral infections have seriously endangered human health, especially COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, which continues to spread worldwide. The development of broad-spectrum antiviral inhibitors is urgently needed. Here, we report a series of small-molecule compounds that proved effective against human coronaviruses (HCoV), such as SARS-CoV-2 and its variants of concern (VOCs), including Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Omicron (B.1.1.529), SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, HCoV-OC43, and other viruses with class I viral fusion proteins, such as influenza virus, Ebola virus (EBOV), Nipah virus (NiV), and Lassa fever virus (LASV). They are also effective against class II enveloped viruses represented by ZIKV and class III enveloped viruses represented by vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Further studies have shown that these compounds may exert antiviral effects through a variety of mechanisms, including inhibiting the formation of the six-helix bundle, which is a typical feature of enveloped virus fusion with cell membranes, and/or targeting viral membrane to inactivate cell-free virions. These compounds are expected to become drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 and other enveloped viruses.
近年来,由病毒感染引起的传染病严重危及人类健康,特别是由SARS-CoV-2引起的COVID-19继续在全球范围内传播。迫切需要开发广谱抗病毒抑制剂。在这里,我们报告了一系列小分子化合物,证明其对人类冠状病毒(HCoV)有效,如SARS-CoV-2及其关注变异体(VOCs),包括Alpha(B.1.1.7),Beta(B.1.351),Gamma(P.1),Delta(B.1.617.2)和Omicron(B.1.1.529),SARS-CoV,MERS-CoV,HCoV-OC43以及其他具有I类病毒融合蛋白的病毒,如流感病毒,埃博拉病毒(EBOV),尼帕病毒(NiV)和拉沙热病毒(LASV)。它们还对ZIKV代表的II类包膜病毒和VSV代表的III类包膜病毒有效。进一步的研究表明,这些化合物可能通过多种机制发挥抗病毒作用,包括抑制六螺旋束的形成,这是包膜病毒与细胞膜融合的典型特征,和/或靶向病毒膜以失活游离病毒。这些化合物有望成为SARS-CoV-2和其他包膜病毒的药物候选物。