American Society for Microbiology, Journal of Virology, 2(94), 2020
DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01471-19
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For many viral infections, current treatment options are insufficient. Because the development of each antiviral drug is time-consuming and expensive, the prospect of finding broad-spectrum antivirals that can fight multiple, diverse viruses—well-known viruses as well as (re)emerging species—has gained attention, especially for the treatment of viral coinfections. While most known broad-spectrum agents address processes in the host cell, we found that targeting lipids of the free virus outside the host cell with the natural products labyrinthopeptin A1 and A2 is a viable strategy to inhibit the proliferation of a broad range of viruses from different families, including chikungunya virus, dengue virus, Zika virus, Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, and cytomegalovirus. Labyrinthopeptins bind to viral phosphatidylethanolamine and induce virolysis without exerting cytotoxicity on host cells. This represents a novel and unusual mechanism to tackle medically relevant viral infections.