Establishment of an antiviral assay system and identification of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus inhibitors

AIMS: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging tick-borne infectious disease. SFTS is epidemic in Asia, and its fatality rate is around 30% in Japan. The causative virus severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is a phlebovirus of the family Phenuiviridae (the order Bunyavirales). Although effective treatments are required, there are no antiviral agents currently approved for clinical use. Ribavirin and favipiravir were examined for their anti-SFTSV activity and found to be selective inhibitors of SFTSV replication in vitro. However, their activity was not sufficient. Therefore, it is mandatory to identify novel compounds active against SFTSV. To this end, we have established a safe and rapid assay system for screening selective inhibitors of SFTSV. METHODS: The virus was isolated from SFTS patients treated in Kagoshima University Hospital. Vero cells were infected with SFTSV and incubated in the presence of various concentrations of test compounds. After three days, the cells were examined for their intracellular viral RNA levels by real-time reverse transcription-PCR without extracting viral RNA. The cytotoxicity of test compounds was determined by a tetrazolium dye method. RESULTS: Among the test compounds, the antimalarial agent amodiaquine was identified as a selective inhibitor of SFTSV replication. Its 50% effective concentration (EC(50)) and cytotoxic concentration (CC(50)) were 19.1 ± 5.1 and >100 µM, respectively. The EC(50) value of amodiaquine was comparable to those of ribavirin and favipiravir. CONCLUSION: Amodiaquine is considered to be a promising lead of novel anti-SFTSV agents, and evaluating the anti-SFTSV activity of its derivatives is in progress.