{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,2]],"date-time":"2026-02-02T08:38:02Z","timestamp":1770021482225,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,12]],"date-time":"2019-03-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1552348800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004063","name":"Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["KAW 2013.0019"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["KAW 2013.0019"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004063","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100011264","name":"FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["290002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["290002"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100011264","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) is a severe ocular disease and can lead to visual impairment. Human adenovirus type-37 (HAdV-D37) is one of the major causative agents of EKC and uses sialic acid (SA)-containing glycans as cellular receptors. Currently, there are no approved antivirals available for the treatment of EKC. Recently, we have reported that sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) bind to HAdV-D37 via the fiber knob (FK) domain of the viral fiber protein and function as decoy receptors. Based on this finding, we speculated that GAG-mimetics may act as artificial decoy receptors and inhibit HAdV-D37 infection. Repurposing of approved drugs to identify new antivirals has drawn great attention in recent years. Here, we report the antiviral effect of suramin, a WHO-approved drug and a widely known GAG-mimetic, against HAdV-D37. Commercially available suramin analogs also show antiviral effects against HAdV-D37. We demonstrate that suramin exerts its antiviral activity by inhibiting the attachment of HAdV-D37 to cells. We also reveal that the antiviral effect of suramin is HAdV species-specific. Collectively, in this proof of concept study, we demonstrate for the first time that virus binding to a decoy receptor constitutes a novel and an unexplored target for antiviral drug development.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v11030242","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,13]],"date-time":"2019-03-13T04:07:37Z","timestamp":1552450057000},"page":"242","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Decoy Receptor Interactions as Novel Drug Targets against EKC-Causing Human Adenovirus"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8551-3256","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Naresh","family":"Chandra","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Virology, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Ume\u00e5 University, SE-90185 Ume\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lars","family":"Fr\u00e4ngsmyr","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Virology, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Ume\u00e5 University, SE-90185 Ume\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7069-6678","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Niklas","family":"Arnberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Virology, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Ume\u00e5 University, SE-90185 Ume\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1758","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ophtha.2006.06.029","article-title":"The RPS adeno detector for diagnosing adenoviral conjunctivitis","volume":"113","author":"Sambursky","year":"2006","journal-title":"Ophthalmology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"981","DOI":"10.2147\/IDR.S162669","article-title":"Pathogenesis and management of adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis","volume":"11","author":"Chigbu","year":"2018","journal-title":"Infect. 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