Antiviral effects of simeprevir on multiple viruses

Abstract Simeprevir was developed as a small molecular drug targeting the NS3/4A protease of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Unexpectedly, our current work discovered that Simeprevir effectively promoted the transcription of IFN-β and ISG15, inhibited the infection of host cells by multiple viruses including Zika virus (ZIKV), Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71), as well as herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). However, the inhibitory effects of Simeprevir on ZIKV, EV-A71 and HSV-1 were independent from IFN-β and ISG15. This study thus demonstrates that the application of Simeprevir can be extended to other viruses besides HCV.