Novel antiviral discoveries for Japanese encephalitis virus infections through reporter virus‐based high‐throughput screening

Abstract

Japanese encephalitis (JE) caused by JE virus (JEV), remains a global public health concern. Currently, there is no specific antiviral drug approved for the treatment of JE. While vaccines are available for prevention, they may not cover all at‐risk populations. This underscores the urgent need for prophylaxis and potent anti‐JEV drugs. In this context, a high‐content JEV reporter system expressing Nanoluciferase (Nluc) was developed and utilized for a high‐throughput screening (HTS) of a commercial antiviral library to identify potential JEV drug candidates. Remarkably, this screening process led to the discovery of five drugs with outstanding antiviral activity. Further mechanism of action analysis revealed that cepharanthine, an old clinically approved drug, directly inhibited virus replication by blocking GTP binding to the JEV RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase. Additionally, treatment with cepharanthine in mice models alleviated JEV infection. These findings warrant further investigation into the potential anti‐JEV activity of cepharanthine as a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of JEV infection. The HTS method employed here proves to be an accurate and convenient approach that facilitates the rapid development of antiviral drugs.