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The anti-obesity drug orlistat reveals anti-viral activity

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Abstract

The administration of drugs to inhibit metabolic pathways not only reduces the risk of obesity-induced diseases in humans but may also hamper the replication of different viral pathogens. In order to investigate the value of the US Food and Drug Administration-approved anti-obesity drug orlistat in view of its anti-viral activity against different human-pathogenic viruses, several anti-viral studies, electron microscopy analyses as well as fatty acid uptake experiments were performed. The results indicate that administrations of non-cytotoxic concentrations of orlistat reduced the replication of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) in different cell types significantly. Moreover, orlistat revealed cell protective effects and modified the formation of multi-layered structures in CVB3-infected cells, which are necessary for viral replication. Lowering fatty acid uptake from the extracellular environment by phloretin administrations had only marginal impact on CVB3 replication. Finally, orlistat reduced also the replication of varicella-zoster virus moderately but had no significant influence on the replication of influenza A viruses. The data support further experiments into the value of orlistat as an inhibitor of the fatty acid synthase to develop new anti-viral compounds, which are based on the modulation of cellular metabolic pathways.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Virology and Antiviral Therapy, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Hans-Knöll-Str. 2, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Elisabeth Ammer, Christian Rien, Alexander Kühnl, Theresa Mader, Andreas Sauerbrei & Andreas Henke

  2. Center of Electron Microscopy, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Sandor Nietzsche

  3. Institute for Molecular Cell Biology, Center for Molecular Biomedicine, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Regine Heller

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  1. Elisabeth Ammer
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  2. Sandor Nietzsche
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  3. Christian Rien
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Correspondence to Andreas Henke.

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Ammer, E., Nietzsche, S., Rien, C. et al. The anti-obesity drug orlistat reveals anti-viral activity. Med Microbiol Immunol 204, 635–645 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-015-0391-4

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