Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) infect respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary tracts and give rise to eye infections and epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC). They persist in lymphoid tissue and cause morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised people. Treatments with significant postexposure efficacy are not available. Here, we report that inhibition of the cell cycle-dependent kinase 9 (Cdk9) by RNA interference, or the compound flavopiridol, blocked infections with HAdV-C2/5, EKC-causing HAdV-D8/37, and progeny formation in human corneal epithelial and cancer cells. Flavopiridol abrogated the production of the immediate early viral transactivating protein E1A without affecting nuclear import of viral DNA. In morphometric plaque assays, the compound exhibited antiviral efficacy in both pre- and postexposure regimens with therapeutic indexes exceeding 10. The study identifies Cdk9 as a postexposure drug target against adenovirus infections in vitro and suggests that the clinically tested anticancer drug flavopiridol is a candidate for treating adenoviral EKC or adenovirus emergence upon immune suppression.
Keywords: C5; D37; D8; antiviral compound; epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC); flavopiridol; host-directed antiviral compound; human adenovirus types C2; impedance/xCELLigence.