Hepatitis B virus (HBV) RNase H (RNH) is an appealing therapeutic target due to its essential role in viral replication. RNH inhibitors (RNHIs) could help to more effectively control HBV infections. Here, we report 3-hydroxypyrimidine-2,4-diones as novel HBV RNHIs with antiviral activity. We synthesized and tested 52 analogs and found 4 that inhibit HBV RNH activity in infected cells. Importantly, 2 of these compounds inhibited HBV replication in the low micromolar range.
KEYWORDS RNase H, antiviral agents, hepatitis B virusA pproximately 350 to 400 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), a condition that can lead to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and death (1-5). Current HBV treatment options include only certain nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and the innate immune modulator, interferon alpha (1-6). Interferon has only limited efficacy in patients and has many adverse side effects. NRTIs can effectively control virus production and disease progression, but they do not clear the infection. Accordingly, HBV-infected individuals currently require lifelong treatment that can be very costly and that has the potential for adverse side effects due to long-term administration of a therapeutic agent (1-6).HBV replicates through a pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) intermediate that is converted to the circular, partially double-stranded DNA genome by the viral polymerase, which has priming, reverse transcriptase, and RNase H (RNH) activities. RNH activity degrades the pgRNA during production of the negative-sense DNA strand, allowing for synthesis of the positive-sense DNA strand. The abolishment of RNH activity results in replicationincompetent viruses (7-11), suggesting that HBV RNH represents a potential drug target. To date, -thujaplicinol, naphthyridinones, ␣-hydroxylated tropolones, and N-hydroxyisoquinolinediones have shown activity against HBV replication as RNH inhibitors (RNHIs) (7, 10-13). We report here that 3-hydroxypyrimidine-2,4-diones (HPDs) are novel HBV RNHIs with inhibitory activity against fully infectious HBV.Previously reported HBV RNHIs were discovered by testing known inhibitors of HIV-1 RNH and integrase, which have similar enzymatic mechanisms. Such compounds act by chelating the two metal cofactors that are coordinated to the catalytic RNH active site