Antiviral Activity Of Small Molecule Compounds Based On RNAi Immunity

RNAi is an evolutionarily conserved post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanism in eukaryotes,which can act as an innate antiviral immune response in fungi,plants,invertebrates,and mammals and a novel target for antiviral drugs development.Previous studies have found that Enoxacin,a FDA approved antibiotic,can significantly enhance RNAi.Based on that,we found that Enoxacin treatment can significantly inhibit the replication and infection of zika virus(ZIKV)and dengue virus(DENV)in Aag2 cells,and the antiviral effect of Enoxacin is achieved by enhancing antiviral RNAi immunity.In this study,we investigated the antiviral activity and mechanism of Enoxacin with RNAi enhancing activity.Here,we found that the RNA replication of ZIKV and DENV in infected Aag2 cells significantly decreased after Enoxacin treatment,indicating that Enoxacin inhibited ZIKV and DENV infection in Aag2 cells.This study demonstrated that Enoxacin could enhance RNAi by promoting TRBP binding to siRNA nor relying on Dicer cleavage activity in 293 T cells.