{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,27]],"date-time":"2026-09-27T21:32:01Z","timestamp":1790544721316,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,18]],"date-time":"2021-03-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1616025600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["8187131465"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["8187131465"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pharmacol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>With an almost 100% mortality rate, rabies virus (RABV) infection is a global concern. Limited post-exposure prophylaxis and lack of an effective treatment necessitate novel antiviral therapies against RABV. Here, using a high-throughput screening (HTS) method developed in our lab, 11 candidates with anti-RABV activity were identified from a library of 767 clinical drugs. Clofazimine (CFZ), an anti-leprosy drug, displayed an EC<jats:sub>50<\/jats:sub> of 2.28\u00a0\u03bcM, and SI over 967 against RABV. Investigations into the underlying mechanisms revealed that CFZ targeted viral membrane fusion at the early stages of virus replication. Moreover, CFZ and Clofazimine salicylates (CFZS) exhibited elevated survival rates <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>, compared with the positive control T-705. Thus, this study revealed CFZ as a promising drug against RABV infection.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2021.598241","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,18]],"date-time":"2021-03-18T06:02:05Z","timestamp":1616047325000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Clofazimine: A Promising Inhibitor of Rabies Virus"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Jiajing","family":"Wu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shouchun","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shan","family":"Lei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yinghong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yueyang","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hui","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qianqian","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoqiang","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruifeng","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Weijin","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinyue","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongxin","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Danqing","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuhua","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Youchun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.antiviral.2018.03.011","article-title":"Ribavirin-related compounds exert in vitro inhibitory effects toward rabies virus","volume":"154","author":"Anindita","year":"2018","journal-title":"Antiviral Res."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e03679","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.03679","article-title":"Favipiravir elicits antiviral mutagenesis during virus replication in vivo","volume":"3","author":"Arias","year":"2014","journal-title":"Elife"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4686","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vaccine.2017.10.109","article-title":"Re-evaluating the effect of Favipiravir treatment on rabies virus infection","volume":"37","author":"Banyard","year":"2019","journal-title":"Vaccine"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Unit 13B.3","DOI":"10.1002\/0471141755.ph13b03s51","article-title":"High-throughput screening of viral entry inhibitors using pseudotyped virus","author":"Basu","year":"2010","journal-title":"Curr. 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