Ebola (EBOV) and Zika viruses (ZIKV) are responsible for recent global health threats. As no preventive vaccines or antiviral drugs against these two re-emerging pathogens are available, we evaluated whether the molecular tweezer CLR01 may inhibit EBOV and ZIKV infection. This small molecule has previously been shown to inactivate HIV-1 and herpes viruses through a selective interaction with lipid-raft-rich regions in the viral envelope, which results in membrane disruption and loss of infectivity. We found that CLR01 indeed blocked infection of EBOV and ZIKV in a dose-dependent manner. The tweezer inhibited infection of epidemic ZIKV strains in cells derived from the anogenital tract and the central nervous system, and remained antivirally active in the presence of semen, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid. Our findings show that CLR01 is a broad-spectrum inhibitor of enveloped viruses with prospects as a preventative microbicide or antiviral agent.

埃博拉病毒 (EBOV) 和寨卡病毒 (ZIKV) 是近期全球健康威胁的罪魁祸首。由于没有针对这两种重新出现的病原体的预防性疫苗或抗病毒药物，我们评估了分子镊子CLR01是否可以抑制EBOV和ZIKV感染。这种小分子先前已被证明可以通过与病毒包膜中富含脂筏的区域选择性相互作用来灭活 HIV-1 和疱疹病毒，从而导致膜破裂和感染性丧失。我们发现CLR01确实以剂量依赖的方式阻断了EBOV和ZIKV的感染。该镊子可抑制源自肛门生殖道和中枢神经系统的细胞中流行性寨卡病毒株的感染，并且在精液、唾液、尿液和脑脊液存在的情况下仍保持抗病毒活性。我们的研究结果表明，CLR01 是一种广谱包膜病毒抑制剂，具有作为预防性杀菌剂或抗病毒剂的前景。