Many viruses utilize endosomal pathways to gain entry to cells and propagate infection. Sensing of endosomal acidification is a trigger for release of many virus cores into the cell cytosol. Previous efforts with inhibitors of vacuolar-ATPase have been shown to block endosomal acidification and affect viral entry albeit with limited potential for therapeutic selectivity. Herein, four novel series of derivatives of the vacuolar-ATPase inhibitor diphyllin were synthesized to assess their potential for enhancing potency and anti-filoviral activity over cytotoxicity. Derivatives that suitably blocked cellular entry of Ebola pseudo-typed virus were further evaluated as inhibitors of endosomal acidification and isolated human Vacuolar-ATPase activity. Several compounds with significant increases in potency over diphyllin in these assays also separated from cytotoxic doses in human cell models by >100 fold. Finally, three derivatives were shown to be inhibitors of replication-competent Ebola viral entry into primary macrophages with comparable potencies and enhanced selectivity toward anti-viral activity.
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