Anti-Influenza Activity of C60 Fullerene Derivatives
Masaki Shoji, 1 Etsuhisa Takahashi, 2 Dai Hatakeyama, 1 Yuma Iwai, 1 Yuka Morita, 1 Riku Shirayama, 1 Noriko Echigo, 1 Hiroshi Kido, 2 Shigeo Nakamura, 3 Tadahiko Mashino, 4 Takeshi Okutani, 1 and Takashi Kuzuhara 1 , *
The H1N1 influenza A virus, which originated in swine, caused a global pandemic in 2009, and the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has also caused epidemics in Southeast Asia in recent years. Thus, the threat from influenza A remains a serious global health issue, and novel drugs that target these viruses are highly desirable. Influenza A RNA polymerase consists of the PA, PB1, and PB2 subunits, and the N-terminal domain of the PA subunit demonstrates endonuclease activity.
In a cell culture system, we found that several fullerene derivatives inhibit influenza A viral infection and the expression of influenza A nucleoprotein and nonstructural protein 1. These results indicate that fullerene derivatives are possible candidates for the development of novel anti-influenza drugs.