Anti-viral and immunomodulatory effects of Zafirlukast against
flaviviruses via inhibition of the TNF signaling pathway
Abstract
The two most clinically important members of the flavivirus genus, Zika
virus (ZIKV) and dengue virus (DENV) pose a significant public health
challenge. They cause a range of diseases in humans, from hemorrhagic to
neurological manifestations, leading to economic and social burden
worldwide. Nevertheless, there are no approved antiviral drugs to treat
these infections. Zafirlukast is an orally available Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approved drug for the prophylaxis and treatment of
chronic asthma. It is a leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA) with high
selectivity of the cysteinyl leukotriene-1 receptor (CYSLTR1) that acts
as immune modulator. Thus, we evaluated the antiviral potential of
Zafirlukast against ZIKV and DENV in SK-N-SH cells. We showed that
Zafirlukast exhibited potent antiviral activity against ZIKV, which
could be linked to Zafirlukast’s immune blockade of TNF signaling
pathways and its downstream signaling pathways such as MAPK and ERK1/2.
In addition, our results showed that Zafirlukast also counteracts
ZIKV-induced changes in key genes involved in cellular lipid metabolism.
Thus, these findings highlight the translational potential of optimizing
Zafirlukast as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of ZIKV and DENV.