Screening a neurotransmitter-receptor-related inhibitor library identifies clomipramine HCl as a potential antiviral compound against Japanese encephalitis virus

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a leading cause of viral encephalitis worldwide. JEV exhibits significant neuroinvasiveness and neurotoxicity, resulting in considerable damage to the nervous system. Japanese encephalitis is associated with high morbidity and mortality rate, seriously harming both human health and livestock production. The current lack of specific antiviral drugs means that the development of new therapeutic agents for JEV has become urgent.

Anti-JEV drugs were screened from 111 inhibitors of neurotransmitter receptor-related molecules by high content technology. The antiviral effects of clomipramine HCl were evaluated through plaque assay, realtime quantitative PCR, immunofluorescence assay and western blotting assay. Bioinformatic tools were utilized to cluster the altered signaling pathway members after clomipramine HCl treatment. Finally, the anti-JEV mechanism was deeply resolved in vivo via such molecular biology and virological detection techniques.

In this study, we screened nine compounds with significant anti-JEV activity, of which clomipramine HCl demonstrated the most potent antiviral effect and exhibited dose-dependent activity. Mechanistically, clomipramine HCl may activate endoplasmic reticulum stress and modulate the unfolded protein response, thus inhibiting the assembly stage of JEV infection.

This study highlights the importance of clomipramine HCl as a promising approach for JEV infection protection, which may lead to new host-directed antiviral approaches to such mosquito-borne viruses.