Inhibition of BET Family Proteins Suppresses African Swine Fever Virus Infection
Yaru Zhao, Qingli Niu, Saixia Yang, Jifei Yang, Zhonghui Zhang, Shuxian Geng, Jie Fan, Zhijie Liu, Guiquan Guan, Zhiqing Liu, Jia Zhou, Haitao Hu, Jianxun Luo, Hong Yin
Abstract
Due to the continuing spread of the ASFV in the world and the lack of commercial vaccines, the development of improved control strategies, including antiviral drugs, is urgently needed. BRD4 is an important epigenetic factor and has been commonly used for drug development for tumor treatment. Furthermore, the latest research showed that BET/BRD4 inhibition could suppress replication of virus. In this study, we first showed the inhibitory effect of agents targeting BET/BRD4 on ASFV infection with no significant host cytotoxicity. Then, we found four BET/BRD4 inhibitors that can inhibit ASFV replication, RNA transcription, and protein synthesis. Our findings support the hypothesis that BET/BRD4 can be considered as attractive host targets in antiviral drug discovery against ASFV.