Investigation of the antiviral effects of artesunate on BK and JC polyomavirus replication

Abstract

The ubiquitous human BK and JC polyomaviruses cause the diseases polyomavirus-associated nephropathy, hemoragic cystitis and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in immunosuppressed patients. There are no antiviral drugs for these diseases which often lead to kidney graft loss, severe disability and premature death. As a first step in the evaluation of the malaria drug artesunate as a future treatment option, we investigated the effect on BK- and JC polyomavirus replication in cell cultures. Our results show that artesunate inhibits BKPyV replication in kidney tubular epithelial cells and urothelial cells, the host cells for BK Polyomavirus in PyVAN and PyVHC. Similarly, artesunate inhibits JC polyomavirus replication in COS-7 cells. Slower cell division was also seen but this was transient. The exact mechanism for viral inhibition is not known yet but probably involves cellular proteins. Taken together, our results suggest that artesunate could be beneficial for treatment of polyomavirus diseases but first, carefully designed clinical studies are needed.