ArticleVirology journal2016
Suramin is a potent inhibitor of Chikungunya and Ebola virus cell entry.
Article in Virology journal, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phase I, Single-Dose Study to Assess the Pharmacokinetics and Safety of Suramin in Healthy Chinese Volunteers.Drug design, development and therapy · 2023Trial
- Recent advances in antiviral drugs for Chikungunya virus (CHIKV): Targets, mechanisms, and development strategies.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Review
- Structural basis for RNA synthesis and inhibition of the orthobunyavirus polymerase.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Small Molecule Inhibition of Mononegavirales RNA Polymerases.Journal of medical virology · 2026Review
- Chikungunya in 2025: Comprehensive Insights into Virology, Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Antiviral Therapies.Viruses · 2026Review
- Genomic characterization and evolutionary analysis of Chikungunya virus strains in Guangzhou, China, 2025.Virology journal · 2025Article
- A Review of the Biology of Chikungunya Virus Highlighting the Development of Current Novel Therapeutic and Prevention Approaches.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Ion-Channel-Targeting Drugs for Chikungunya Virus.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Structure and transport mechanism of the human prostaglandin transporter SLCO2A1.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Pentamidine inhibition of streptopain attenuatesMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Current and future advances in practice: arboviral arthritides.Rheumatology advances in practice · 2025Review
- West Nile virus - a re-emerging global threat: recent advances in vaccines and drug discovery.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Review
- Interference of small compounds and MgScientific reports · 2024Article
- Development of Fusion-Based Assay as a Drug Screening Platform for Nipah Virus Utilizing Baculovirus Expression Vector System.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Antiviral Protein-Protein Interaction Inhibitors.Journal of medicinal chemistry · 2024Review
- Suramin, an antiparasitic drug, stimulates adipocyte differentiation and promotes adipogenesis.Lipids in health and disease · 2023Article
- The role of invariant surface glycoprotein 75 in xenobiotic acquisition by African trypanosomes.Microbial cell (Graz, Austria) · 2023Article
- Review
- An update on inhibitors targeting RNA-dependent RNA polymerase for COVID-19 treatment: Promises and challenges.Biochemical pharmacology · 2022Review
- Structure of the Ebola virus polymerase complex.Nature · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that causes high fever, rash, and recurrent arthritis in humans. It has efficiently adapted to Aedes albopictus, which also inhabits temperate regions and currently causes large outbreaks in the Caribbean and Latin America. Ebola virus (EBOV) is a member of the filovirus family. It causes the Ebola virus disease (EDV), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever in humans and has a mortality rate of up to 70 %. The last outbreak in Western Africa was the largest in history and has caused approximately 25,000 cases and 10,000 deaths. For both viral infections no specific treatment or licensed vaccine is currently available. The bis-hexasulfonated naphthylurea, suramin, is used as a treatment for trypanosome-caused African river blindness. As a competitive inhibitor of heparin, suramin has been described to have anti-viral activity.
methodsWe tested the activity of suramin during CHIKV or Ebola virus infection, using CHIKV and Ebola envelope glycoprotein pseudotyped lentiviral vectors and wild-type CHIKV and Ebola virus.
resultsSuramin efficiently inhibited CHIKV and Ebola envelope-mediated gene transfer while vesicular stomatitis virus G protein pseudotyped vectors were only marginally affected. In addition, suramin was able to inhibit wild-type CHIKV and Ebola virus replication in vitro. Inhibition occurred at early time points during CHIKV infection.
conclusionSuramin, also known as Germanin or Bayer-205, is a market-authorized drug, however shows significant side effects, which probably prevents its use as a CHIKV drug, but due to the high lethality of Ebola virus infections, suramin might be valuable against Ebola infections.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.