Sugar Ball Blocks Ebola

Most of the experimental Ebola treatments that have advanced to the clinic target the virus itself. Now, one team of researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid has synthesized a large organic “superball” compound to block the virus from entering immune cells (Nat. Chem. 2015, DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2387). Previous studies on Ebola indicate that a critical step in the deadly infection involves the virus entering the immune system’s dendritic cells via a receptor protein called dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing nonintegrin, or DC-SIGN. The new agent, a tridecafullerene, gets in Ebola’s way by mimicking the virus’s outer coat of carbohydrates and binding to DC-SIGN. The team, led by Nazario Martín, achieved this structure by using click chemistry to connect adducts of [60]fullerene to each other and to sugar molecules. The team tested the ability of three versions of the superball compound to bind to DC-SIGN. One of these tested compounds potently blocked an artificial Ebola virus from infecting immune cells in vitro and did so at a low concentration without harmful effects to human cells.