The human myxovirus-resistance protein B (MxB, also called Mx2) was recently reported to inhibit HIV-1 infection by impeding the nuclear import and integration of viral DNA. However, it is currently unknown whether there exist MxB-resistant HIV-1 strains in the infected individuals. Answer to this question should address whether MxB exerts an inhibitory pressure on HIV-1 in vivo and whether HIV-1 has evolved to evade MxB inhibition. We have examined ten transmitted founder (T/F) HIV-1 strains for their sensitivity to MxB inhibition by infecting CD4+ T cell lines SupT1 and PM1 that were stably transduced to express MxB. Two T/F stains, CH040.c and RHPA.c, were found resistant and this resistance phenotype was mapped to the amino acid positions 87 and 208 in viral capsid. The H87Q mutation is located in the cyclophilin A (CypA) binding loop and has a prevalence of 21% in HIV-1 sequences registered in HIV database. This finding prompted us to test other frequent amino acid variants in the CypA-binding region and the results revealed MxB-resistant mutations at amino acid positions 86, 87, 88 and 92 in capsid. All these mutations diminished the interaction of HIV-1 capsid with CypA. Our results demonstrate the existence of MxB-resistant T/F HIV-1 strains. The high prevalence of MxB-resistant mutations in the CypA-binding loop indicates the significant selective pressure of MxB on HIV-1 replication in vivo especially given that this viral resistance mechanism operates at expense of losing CypA.

Antiviral therapeutics is one effective avenue to control and end this devastating COVID-19 pandemic. The viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of SARS-CoV-2 has been recognized as a valuable target of antivirals. However, the cell-free SARS-CoV-2 RdRp biochemical assay requires the conversion of nucleotide prodrugs into the active triphosphate forms, which regularly occurs in cells yet is a complicated multiple-step chemical process in vitro, and thus hinders the utility of this cell-free assay in the rapid discovery of RdRp inhibitors. In addition, SARS-CoV-2 exoribonuclease provides the proof-reading capacity to viral RdRp, thus creates relatively high resistance threshold of viral RdRp to nucleotide analog inhibitors, which must be examined and evaluated in the development of this class of antivirals. Here, we report a cell-based assay to evaluate the efficacy of nucleotide analog compounds against SARS-CoV-2 RdRp and assess their tolerance to viral exoribonuclease-mediated proof-reading. By testing seven commonly used nucleotide analog viral polymerase inhibitors, Remdesivir, Molnupiravir, Ribavirin, Favipiravir, Penciclovir, Entecavir and Tenofovir, we found that both Molnupiravir and Remdesivir showed the strong inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp, with EC50 value of 0.22 μM and 0.67 μM, respectively. Moreover, our results suggested that exoribonuclease nsp14 increases resistance of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp to nucleotide analog inhibitors. We also determined that Remdesivir presented the highest resistance to viral exoribonuclease activity in cells. Therefore, we have developed a cell-based SARS-CoV-2 RdRp assay which can be deployed to discover SARS-CoV-2 RdRp inhibitors that are urgently needed to treat COVID-19 patients.

Viruses of the Flaviviridae family cause major illness and death around the world and thus pose a great threat to human health. Here we show that IFN-inducible MxB restricts several members of the Flaviviridae , including HCV, Japanese encephalitis virus, and dengue virus. This finding not only suggests an active role of MxB in combating these major pathogenic human viruses but also significantly expands the antiviral spectrum of MxB. Our study further strengthens the link between virus dependence on CypA and susceptibility to MxB restriction and also suggests that MxB may employ a common mechanism to inhibit different viruses. Elucidating the antiviral functions of MxB advances our understanding of IFN-mediated host antiviral defense and may open new avenues to the development of novel antiviral therapeutics.

Influenza is one of the most common infections threatening public health worldwide and is caused by the influenza virus. Rapid emergence of drug resistance has led to an urgent need to develop new anti-influenza inhibitors. In this study we established a 293T cell line that constitutively synthesizes a virus-based negative strand RNA, which expresses Gaussia luciferase upon influenza A virus infection. Using this cell line, an assay was developed and optimized to search for inhibitors of influenza virus replication. Biochemical studies and statistical analyses presented herein demonstrate the sensitivity and reproducibility of the assay in a high-throughput format (Z' factor value>0.8). A pilot screening provides further evidence for validation of the assay. Taken together, this work provides a simple, convenient, and reliable HTS assay to identify compounds with anti-influenza activity.