Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals
Open Access

Abstract

Verapamil has Antiviral Activities that Target Different Steps of the Influenza Virus Replication Cycle

Mohammad Intakhab Alam, Ahmed Mostafa, Pumaree Kanrai, Christin Müller, Julia Dzieciolowski, Eva Lenz, Irina Kuznetsova, Patricia Schult-Dietrich, John Ziebuhr, Ursula Dietrich and Stephan Pleschka

Safe and efficacious therapeutic options for infections caused by highly pathogenic influenza viruses (IV) remain limited. Viruses resistant to approved antiviral drugs are increasingly emerging and, in some cases, existing vaccines are insufficient to prevent seasonal epidemics or pandemics caused by these viruses. As a consequence, alternative antiviral strategies that, for example, target cellular factors or mechanisms essential for IV propagation have attracted increasing interest over the past years. Here, we characterized antiviral effects of the calcium channel blocker Verapamil on different steps of the IV replication cycle. Our data suggest that Verapamil (i) efficiently reduces influenza A and B virus titres in cell culture at non-toxic concentrations, (ii) does not influence virus entry, (iii) impairs the replication and transcription activity of the viral polymerase, (iv) decreases viral protein production, (v) reduces virus-induced NF-κB activation and (vi) does not induce the emergence of resistant IV variants, resulting in strongly reduced infectious particle formation.