Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) has caused huge economic losses to tobacco, pepper, cucumber, and ornamental crops all over the world. However, few effective antiviral agents were developed and applied to control such plant disease. It is challenging to find an anti-TMV agent which is highly effective, less toxic, and environmentally friendly. In this work, a series of ferulic acid ester-containing sulfonamide moieties were designed and synthesized, and the antiviral activities of these compounds against TMV were evaluated. The anti-TMV biological activity test showed that the target compounds showed excellent anti-TMV activity in vitro and in vivo. In particular, compound 2 has excellent anti-TMV activity at 500 μg/mL, which is higher than that of the control drug ribavirin. The preliminary mechanism research results showed that compound 2 can obviously destroy the morphology of the virions to show excellent activity. The results show that the ferulic acid ester-containing sulfonamide moiety deserves further research and development.
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