Do bithiazole PI4KB inhibitors show broad-spectrum antiviral activity and safety in preclinical models?
Bithiazole PI4KB inhibitors demonstrate broad-spectrum antiviral activity across multiple viral families with complete viral inhibition and no toxicity in an airway model, suggesting potential as broad-spectrum antivirals.
Broad-spectrum antivirals can be extremely important for pandemic preparedness. Targeting host factors dispensable for the host but indispensable for the virus can result in high barrier to resistance and a large range of viruses targeted. PI4KB is a lipid kinase involved in the replication of several RNA viruses, but common inhibitors of this target are mainly active against members of the Picornaviridae family. Herein we describe the optimization of bithiazole PI4KB inhibitors as broad-spectrum antivirals (BSAs) active against different members of the Picornaviridae, Coronaviridae, Flaviviridae and Poxviridae families. Since some of these viruses are transmitted via respiratory route, the efficacy of one of the most promising compounds was evaluated in an airway model. The molecule showed complete viral inhibition and absence of toxicity. These results pave the road for the development of new BSAs.
Martina et al. (Tue,) studied this question.