Competitive inhibitor of cellular α-glucosidases protects mice from lethal dengue virus infection

Dengue virus infection causes diseases in people, ranging from the acute febrile illness dengue fever, to life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome. We previously reported that a host cellular alpha-glucosidases I and II inhibitor, imino sugar CM-10-18, potently inhibited dengue virus replication in cultured cells, and significantly reduced viremia in dengue virus infected AG129 mice. In this report we show that CM-10-18 also significantly protects mice from death and/or disease progress in two mouse models of lethal dengue virus infection. Our results thus provide a strong support for the development of CM-10-18 or its derivatives as antiviral agents to treat servere dengue virus infections. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.