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. 2013;7(1):e2005.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002005. Epub 2013 Jan 17.

Bispidine-amino acid conjugates act as a novel scaffold for the design of antivirals that block Japanese encephalitis virus replication

V Haridas  1 , Kullampalayam Shanmugam Rajgokul, Sandhya Sadanandan, Tanvi Agrawal, Vats Sharvani, M V S Gopalakrishna, M B Bijesh, Kanhaiya Lal Kumawat, Anirban Basu, Guruprasad R Medigeshi
Affiliations

Bispidine-amino acid conjugates act as a novel scaffold for the design of antivirals that block Japanese encephalitis virus replication

V Haridas et al. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2013.

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a major cause of viral encephalitis in South and South-East Asia. Lack of antivirals and non-availability of affordable vaccines in these endemic areas are a major setback in combating JEV and other closely related viruses such as West Nile virus and dengue virus. Protein secondary structure mimetics are excellent candidates for inhibiting the protein-protein interactions and therefore serve as an attractive tool in drug development. We synthesized derivatives containing the backbone of naturally occurring lupin alkaloid, sparteine, which act as protein secondary structure mimetics and show that these compounds exhibit antiviral properties.

Methodology/principal findings: In this study we have identified 3,7-diazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane, commonly called bispidine, as a privileged scaffold to synthesize effective antiviral agents. We have synthesized derivatives of bispidine conjugated with amino acids and found that hydrophobic amino acid residues showed antiviral properties against JEV. We identified a tryptophan derivative, Bisp-W, which at 5 µM concentration inhibited JEV infection in neuroblastoma cells by more than 100-fold. Viral inhibition was at a stage post-entry and prior to viral protein translation possibly at viral RNA replication. We show that similar concentration of Bisp-W was capable of inhibiting viral infection of two other encephalitic viruses namely, West Nile virus and Chandipura virus.

Conclusions/significance: We have demonstrated that the amino-acid conjugates of 3,7-diazabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane can serve as a molecular scaffold for development of potent antivirals against encephalitic viruses. Our findings will provide a novel platform to develop effective inhibitors of JEV and perhaps other RNA viruses causing encephalitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Two patent applications are pending related to this study with provisional patent application numbers 2784/Del/2011 and 2786/Del/2011.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Bispidine and its derivatives.
(A) Structural relationship of bispidine to natural product sparteine. (B) General structure of bispidine compounds (i) and (ii) represent the conformer equilibrium in diimides of bispidine (iii) Conjugates of bispidine wherein the nitrogen is part of the amino acids. (C) The genesis of design of bispidine. (D) Synthesis of bispidine conjugates i) N-hydroxysuccinimide/DCC/NEt3/Boc-Leu-OH/dry dichloromethane; ii) N-hydroxysuccinimide/DCC/NEt3/Z-Leu-OH/dry dichloromethane; iii) Br-CH2-CO-Leu-Val-OMe; NEt3, acetonitrile; iv) 25% TFA in dichloromethane.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Effect of Bispidine derivatives on JEV infection.
(A) Viral titers were determined by plaque assay of N2A cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) infected with JEV and treated with 100 µM of derivatives of bispidine. * P<0.01 determined by two-tailed, t-test. (B) Cytotoxicity was measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay from culture supernatants treated with 100 µM of BLB or DMSO. LDH released from cells incubated with detergent buffer was used as 100% LDH release. (C) Viral titers were determined by plaque assay from Huh7 and C6/36 cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) infected with JEV and treated with 100 µM of BLB. *** P = 0.0002 and **P = 0.0041 determined by two-tailed, t-test. (D) N2A cells were infected as above and at 22 h pi cells were fixed and stained with anti-E antibodies followed by alexa 568-conjugated secondary antibodies. Nuclei were stained by DAPI. (E) Viral titers were determined by plaque assay of N2A cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) infected with JEV and treated with 100 µM of BLB at the indicated time points. UT- Untreated. All the data presented are representative of two or more experiments performed with two or more replicates. *** P = 0.0007, 0.0005 and **P = 0.007 as determined by two-tailed, t-test. Error bars in all figures represent Mean ± SEM.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Synthesis of amino acid conjugates of bispidine.
(A) Structure of bispidine conjugated with tryptophan (Bisp-W), lecine+phenylalanine (Bisp-LF) and lysine (Bisp-K). (B) Viral titers were determined by plaque assay of N2A cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) infected with JEV and treated with 5 µM of derivatives of bispidine. *** P = 0.0004 and 0.0004, ** P = 0.0034 and as determined by two-tailed, t-test. Error bars represent Mean ± SEM of three replicates. (C) Cytotoxicity was measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay from culture supernatants treated with 5 µM of the indicated bispidine conjugates or DMSO. LDH released from cells incubated with detergent buffer was used as 100% LDH release. (D) IC50 value for Bisp-W in the indicated cell lines was estimated by measuring viral titers in cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) infected with JEV and treated with the indicated concentration of Bisp-W. Error bars represent Mean ± SEM of three replicates. All the data are representative of experiments performed at least twice with three replicates.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Synthesis of Bisp-W derivatives and its effect on JEV.
(A) Structure of Bisp-W derivatives with tryptophan on one arm of bispidine and benzyl on the other (Bisp-W-Benzyl) and with Boc group deprotected (Bisp-W-NH). (B) Viral titers were determined by plaque assay of N2A cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) infected with JEV and treated with 5 µM derivatives of Bisp-W as indicated. *** P = 0.0003 and 0.0004 and ns: not significant (P = 0.425) as determined by two-tailed, t-test. Error bars represent Mean ± SEM of three replicates. Data are representative of experiments performed twice with three replicates.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Bisp-W blocks JEV RNA replication.
(A) Viral titers were determined by plaque assay of N2A cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) infected with JEV and treated with DMSO or 5 µM of Bisp-W at the indicated time points. Error bars represent Mean ± SEM. ** P<0.005, **** <0001, * <0.01, ** 0.096 and ** <0.001 for respective time points. (B) Viral titers were determined by plaque assay of N2A cell culture supernatants infected with JEV and treated with PBS or 20 µM minocycline and DMSO or 5 µM of Bisp-W as described in materials and methods. Error bars represent Mean ± SEM. *** P = 0.0002. N.D: Not Detected. (C) Western blot analysis of N2A lysates prepared from JEV-infected and DMSO or Bisp-W-treated cells. C- Capsid. β–actin is shown for loading control. (D) Viral titers were determined from supernatants (extracellular) and cell lysates (intracellular) at 22 h pi by plaque assay of samples from N2A cells infected with JEV and treated with 5 µM of Bisp-W at 1 h post-infection. ***P = 0003 and 0.00002 respectively. (E) Total RNA was isolated from N2A cells infected with JEV and treated with 5 µM Bisp-W at 1 h post-infection. JEV genome copy numbers were estimated by quantitative real time PCR normalized to GAPDH mRNA. ** P = 0.0001 by unpaired two-tailed t-test. Error bars represent Mean ± SEM. Data are representative of two or more experiments performed with three replicates.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Effect of Bisp-W on other encephalitic viruses.
(A) N2A cells were infected with an MOI of 1 pfu/cell with WNV and treated with DMSO or 5 µM of Bisp-W. Viral titers in cell culture supernatants (22 h pi) were determined by plaque assay. (B) N2A cells were infected with an MOI of 0.1 pfu/cell with CHPV and treated with DMSO or 5 µM of Bisp-W. Viral titers in cell culture supernatants (8 h pi) were determined by plaque assay. Error bars represent Mean ± SEM of three replicates. Data are representative of two experiments performed with triplicate samples. **P = 004 and 0.002 respectively as determined by unpaired, two-tailed t-test.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Bispidine conjugates as secondary structure mimetics.
(A) Secondary structure showing a β-sheet-like arrangement of BLB in the solid state involving a 10 membered H-bonded ring. (B) CD spectra of 500 µM of Bisp-LF, BLB in MeOH.
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TA is supported by the Vaccine Research Innovation Award. This study was supported by institutional grant by the Department of Biotechnology to GRM (Grant # BT/PR14217/MED/30/405/2010 URL: http://dbtindia.nic.in/index.asp)and by the extra-mural support from the Department of Science and Technology to VH. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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