Use of 5-(Perylen-3-yl)Ethynyl-arabino-Uridine (aUY11) to inactivate Rift Valley fever virus and preserve neutralization epitopes

Rift Valley fever (RFV) is a mosquito-borne disease, endemic to Africa, and known to cause abortion in animals and hemorrhagic fever in humans. All enveloped viruses require the fusion of viral membranes with cellular membranes to enter into and replicate inside the host cell. These viruses have a universal objective: find the cell receptors that match the viral attachment proteins and use those to gain access to the cell membrane. The use of aUY11, a monosaccharide (sugar)-based compound, has previously shown to effectively use a biophysical approach in the inhibition of viral fusion of other enveloped viruses1. In this study, we attempt to use aUY11 to inhibit the fusion of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) in vitro as a primary step in the creation of an FDA-approved vaccination for humans and animals to protect against often-lethal RVFV infection. We show here that aUY11 inhibits viral replication in Vero 76 cells and therefore has potential as an RVFV vaccine