Protective effect of protease inhibitors in influenza virus infected animals

Suppression of Influenza Virus Replication in Infected Mice by Protease Inhibitors

“…These observations suggest that anti-protease compounds have therapeutic potential against influenza (for review, see Zhirnov, 1983). Our previous findings that the protease inhibitors, s-aminocaproic acid and aprotinins, effectively protect animals infected with lethal doses of influenza virus and prevent dissemination of virus throughout the host organism reinforce this conclusion (Zhirnov et al, 1982b. Clinical investigations on children during an outbreak of influenza H3N2 virus in Treatment of virus infection by this approach has considerable advantages.…”

“…The antiviral and therapeutic activities of the inhibitors were also demonstrated with influenza virus-infected animals. Administration of these compounds to mice and chickens infected with lethal doses of influenza virus protected more than 75 % of animals and prevented dissemination of virus throughout the host organism (Zhirnov et al, 1982b). The present work was designated to study the mechanism of the antiviral therapeutic action of protease inhibitors in animals.…”

Myxovirus Replication in Chicken Embryos Can Be Suppressed by Aprotinin Due to the Blockage of Viral Glycoprotein Cleavage

“…This approach could be valuable because many human viruses, such as measles virus (Fujinami & Oldstone, 1981), respiratory syncytial virus (Dubovi et al, 1983;Lambert & Pons, 1983), human parainfluenza viruses (Shimokata et al, 1980;Shibuta et al, 1982), mumps virus (Merz & Wolinsky, 1981 ;Merz et al, 1983), and influenza A, B and C viruses (Lazarowitz & Choppin, 1975;Klenk et al, 1975;Sugawara et al, 1981) require proteolytic events for their activation and virulence. Previously, we have described that influenza virus proteolytic activation can be suppressed by protease inhibitors (Zhirnov et al, 1982c(Zhirnov et al, , 1984a) and a therapeutic effect in influenza-infected animals has been found (Zhirnov et al, 1982b). Clinical trials during an outbreak of influenza H3N2 virus in February to April 1983 also demonstrated the antiviral and therapeutic efficacy of aerosol inhalations of anti-protease compounds (Zhirnov et al, 1984b).…”

Replication of Influenza B virus in chicken embryos is suppressed by exogenous aprotinin

“…Its activity was shown to be realized through the blockage of viral glycoprotein cleavage resulting in inhibition of virus multicycle replication both in cultured cells [15], chicken embryos [18], and infected animals [12,17]. It has been also found that a therapeutic effect is developed in mice infected with influenza A viruses and paramyxoviruses in the presence of a proteinase inhibitor (including aprotinin) treatment [5,10,12,16,19,21]. The data presented here show that aprotinin possesses the ability to prevent the activation of influenza B viruses indicative of the aprotinin antiviral potential not only for influenza A viruses and paramyxoviruses but also for influenza B viruses.…”