PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Tetsufumi Katta
AU  - Ayato Sato
AU  - Naoya Kadofusa
AU  - Tomoki Ishibashi
AU  - Hiroshi Shimoda
AU  - Atsuo Iida
AU  - Eiichi Hondo
TI  - FDA-approved drug screening identified micafungin as an antiviral agent against bat-borne emerging zoonotic Pteropine orthoreovirus
AID  - 10.1101/2022.09.21.508823
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.09.21.508823
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/22/2022.09.21.508823.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/22/2022.09.21.508823.full
AB  - Bat-borne emerging zoonotic viruses cause major outbreaks, such as the Ebola virus, Nipah virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, and SARS-CoV-2. Pteropine orthoreovirus (PRV), which spillover event occurred from fruit bats to humans, causes respiratory syndrome in humans widely in South East Asia. Repurposing approved drugs against PRV is a critical tool to confront future PRV pandemics. We screened 2,943 compounds in an FDA-approved drug library and identified eight hit compounds that reduce viral cytopathic effects on cultured Vero cells. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that six of eight hit compounds significantly inhibited PRV replication. Among them, micafungin used clinically as an antifungal drug, displayed a prominent antiviral effect on PRV.HighlightsA library of 2,943 FDA-approved drugs was screened to find potential antiviral drugs of Pteropine orthoreovirus.Six hit compounds dramatically inhibited viral replication in vitro.Micafungin possessed antiviral activity to multiple strains of PRV.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.