Andrei 21/11/07 15:46 Page 1205 Antiviral Therapy 12:1205–1216 Activity of the anti-orthopoxvirus compound ST-246 against vaccinia, cowpox and camelpox viruses in cell monolayers and organotypic raft cultures Sophie Duraffour1,2, Robert Snoeck1, Rita de Vos 3, Joost J van Den Oord3, Jean-Marc Crance 2, Daniel Garin2, Dennis E Hruby4, Robert Jordan4, Erik De Clercq1 and Graciela Andrei1* 1Rega Institute For Medical Research, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 2CRSSA Emile Pardé, Virology Laboratory, La Tronche, France 3Pathology Department, UZ Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 4SIGA Technologies, Inc., Corvallis, Oregon, CA, USA *Corresponding author: Tel: +32 16 33 73 72; Fax: +32 16 33 73 40; E-mail:
[email protected] Background: The potential use of variola virus as a biolog- Results: ST-246 inhibited preferentially the production of ical weapon has renewed efforts in the development of extracellular virus compared with intracellular virus antiviral agents against orthopoxviruses. ST-246 [4- production in HEL and PHK cells (for VV) and in PHK cells trifluoromethyl-N-(3,3a,4,4a,5,5a,6,6a-octahydro-1,3-di (for CMLV). In organotypic epithelial raft cultures, ST-246 oxo-4,6-ethenocycloprop [f]isoindol-2(1H)-yl)-benza- at 20 μg/ml inhibited extracellular VV and CMLV produc- mide] is an anti-orthopoxvirus compound active against tion by 6 logs, whereas intracellular virus yield was several orthopoxviruses including vaccinia virus (VV), reduced by 2 logs. In the case of CPV, both extracellular cowpox virus (CPV), camelpox virus (CMLV), ectromelia and intracellular virus production were completely inhib- virus (ECTV) and variola virus in cell culture.