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An employee of the Baden-Württemberg State Health Office opens a sample that contains a smear of a 2019 nCoV suspected case. Symbolic photo: dpa
GIESSEN – An artificial virus inhibitor pushes back pathogens like the corona virus, but works just as well against other dangerous viruses like the Lassa or the Zika virus. This has been discovered by a nationwide research group in which scientists from the two universities in central Hesse are also involved. The results have now been published in the specialist journal “Antiviral Research”, says a press release from the Justus Liebig University (JLU).
The natural product Silvestrol is obtained from Asian mahogany plants, which are used in Borneo as traditional medicinal plants for a variety of diseases. The substance blocks an enzyme that is found in body cells; it is needed by invaded viruses that can make their own proteins from this enzyme to multiply. By inhibiting the enzyme, Silvestrol works against a whole range of dangerous pathogens such as Ebola, Lassa and Corona viruses.
Artificial molecule
“Unfortunately, Silvestrol is very difficult to produce chemically,” says Prof. Arnold Grünweller from Marburg, who initiated the study. “So you have to use the plant again and again to gain the substance.” The research group compared the natural product with an artificially produced molecule, CR-31-B, whose chemical structure is similar to it. “However, it has a less complicated structure than Silvestrol,” explains Wiebke Obermann, who is doing her doctoral thesis at the Philipps University in Marburg at Grünweller and is one of the two first authors of the publication. One of the differences between the two substances is that Silvestrol carries an additional chemical group.
The scientists first infected cells with coronaviruses, then added an inhibitor: Silvestrol or CR-31-B. “The antiviral effects are almost identical,” reports the Gießen virologist Dr. Christin Müller, in the working group of Professor Dr. John Ziebuhr researches corona viruses at the Justus Liebig University and shares the first authorship with Obermann.
The finding applies to corona viruses, but also to Zika, Lassa and Crimean-Congo fever viruses. Only against the hepatitis E pathogen does the artificial inhibitor work a little weaker than the natural product. “All in all, our results confirm that CR-31-B is as potent against a broad spectrum of viruses as Silvestrol,” summarizes Grünweller.
The interest of the industry has already been aroused. “However, molecules like CR-31-B, which have a broad spectrum antiviral effect similar to Silvestrol, are still a long way from being approved as a drug,” reports the university lecturer. In cancer medicine, however, a synthetic molecule that is structurally very similar to CR-31-B is already being tested in a clinical study. “This shows that this class of substances has no unexpected toxicity or mutagenicity in corresponding preclinical animal studies, which naturally simplifies future clinical studies of CR-31-B.” Arnold Grünweller teaches pharmaceutical chemistry at Philipps University. The working groups of Prof. Roland K. Hartmann from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Philipps University and Prof. Dr. John Ziebuhr from the Institute for Medical Virology at JLU Gießen. Co-author Prof. Hans-Guido Wendel from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York provided the Silvestrol replacement CR-31-B, as well as the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Langen and the Bernhard Nocht Institute in Hamburg the research work.
Research Focus
The Central Hessian “Loewe” center “Druid” and the German Center for Infection Research, a collaborative research center of the German Research Foundation and the Leibniz Association support the research groups financially, the statement said.
Microbiology and virology are among the main research areas of the research campus Mittelhessen (FCMH). The FCMH is a cross-university institution of the Justus Liebig University of Gießen, the Philipps University of Marburg and the Technical University of Central Hesse, whose task is to strengthen regional network formation in research, promoting young researchers and research infrastructure. Link to the campus focus “Microbiology and Virology”.
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