Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Life Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
Department of Bioscience Technology, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li, Taoyuan City 320314, Taiwan.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Aug 22;25(16):9102. doi: 10.3390/ijms25169102.
Nipah virus (NiV) is known to be a highly pathogenic zoonotic virus, which is included in the World Health Organization Research & Development Blueprint list of priority diseases with up to 70% mortality rate. Due to its high pathogenicity and outbreak potency, a therapeutic countermeasure against NiV is urgently needed. As NiV needs to be handled within a Biological Safety Level (BSL) 4 facility, we had developed a safe drug screening platform utilizing a baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) based on a NiV-induced syncytium formation that could be handled within a BSL-1 facility. To reconstruct the NiV-induced syncytium formation in BEVS, two baculoviruses were generated to express recombinant proteins that are responsible for inducing the syncytium formation, including one baculovirus exhibiting co-expressed NiV fusion protein (NiV-F) and NiV attachment glycoprotein (NiV-G) and another exhibiting human EphrinB2 protein. Interestingly, syncytium formation was observed in infected insect cells when the medium was modified to have a lower pH level and supplemented with cholesterol. Fusion inhibitory properties of several compounds, such as phytochemicals and a polysulfonated naphthylamine compound, were evaluated using this platform. Among these compounds, suramin showed the highest fusion inhibitory activity against NiV-induced syncytium in the baculovirus expression system. Moreover, our in silico results provide a molecular-level glimpse of suramin's interaction with NiV-G's central hole and EphrinB2's G-H loop, which could be the possible reason for its fusion inhibitory activity.
尼帕病毒(NiV)是一种高致病性人畜共患病病毒,被世界卫生组织列入研发蓝图优先疾病名单,死亡率高达 70%。由于其高致病性和爆发潜力,急需针对 NiV 的治疗对策。由于 NiV 需要在生物安全级别 4(BSL-4)设施中处理,我们开发了一种利用杆状病毒表达载体系统(BEVS)的安全药物筛选平台,该平台基于 NiV 诱导的合胞体形成,可以在 BSL-1 设施中处理。为了在 BEVS 中重建 NiV 诱导的合胞体形成,生成了两种杆状病毒来表达负责诱导合胞体形成的重组蛋白,包括一种杆状病毒展示共表达的 NiV 融合蛋白(NiV-F)和 NiV 附着糖蛋白(NiV-G),另一种杆状病毒展示人 EphrinB2 蛋白。有趣的是,当培养基的 pH 值降低并补充胆固醇时,感染的昆虫细胞中观察到合胞体形成。使用该平台评估了几种化合物(如植物化学物质和多磺化萘基胺化合物)的融合抑制特性。在这些化合物中,苏拉明对杆状病毒表达系统中 NiV 诱导的合胞体显示出最高的融合抑制活性。此外,我们的计算机模拟结果提供了苏拉明与 NiV-G 中心孔和 EphrinB2 的 G-H 环相互作用的分子水平视角,这可能是其融合抑制活性的原因。