Coronaviruses are a family of RNA viruses that cause acute and chronic diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract in humans and other animals. SARS-CoV-2 is a recently emerged coronavirus that has led to a global pandemic causing a severe respiratory disease known as COVID-19 with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. The development of antiviral therapeutics are urgently needed while vaccine programs roll out worldwide. Here we describe a diamidobenzimidazole compound, diABZI-4, that activates STING and is highly effective in limiting SARS-CoV-2 replication in cells and animals. diABZI-4 inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in lung epithelial cells. Administration of diABZI-4 intranasally before or even after virus infection conferred complete protection from severe respiratory disease in K18-ACE2-transgenic mice infected with SARS-CoV-2. Intranasal delivery of diABZI-4 induced a rapid short-lived activation of STING, leading to transient proinflammatory cytokine production and lymphocyte activation in the lung associated with inhibition of viral replication. Our study supports the use of diABZI-4 as a host-directed therapy which mobilizes antiviral defenses for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

High-throughput screening and subsequent optimization led to the discovery of novel 3-oxazolidinedione-6-aryl-pyridinones exemplified by compound 2 as potent and selective EP 3 antagonists with excellent pharmacokinetic properties. Compound 2 was orally active and showed robust in vivo activities in overactive bladder models. To address potential bioactivation liabilities of compound 2, further optimization resulted in compounds 9 and 10, which maintained excellent potency, selectivity, and pharmacokinetic properties and showed no bioactivation liability in glutathione trapping studies. These highly potent, selective, and orally active EP 3 antagonists are excellent tool compounds for investigating and validating potential therapeutic benefits from selectively inhibiting the EP 3 receptor.

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A stereocontrolled synthesis of 28, the C(10)–C(25) component of amphidinolide C (1), has been efficiently achieved. Reaction of the dithiane component 21 with nonracemic bis­(epoxide) 19 directly affords functionalized 2,5-trans-disubstituted tetrahydrofuran 22. Propargylation is highly diastereoselective for the formation of the desired C(12)–C(13) anti stereochemistry, and the resulting terminal alkyne 25 is utilized for a regioselective syn-silylstannylation. A general strategy is illustrated for sequential replacement of stannyl and silyl substituents of the trisubstituted alkene to yield (E)-alkenyl iodide 28.

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