Development of Peptide Entry Inhibitors Targeting the Endosomal Receptor NPC1 Binding Site of Orthoebolavirus

Orthoebolavirus causes severe Ebola virus disease (EVD) and deadly outbreaks in humans. This infection occurs through macropinocytosis and trafficking to late endosomes or lysosomes that utilize the receptor Niemann–Pick C1 (NPC1) to enter the cell cytoplasm. We designed peptide inhibitors based on the NPC1 receptor to target the NPC1 binding site to block viral entry. The results indicated that the ligand-based peptide inhibitors showed potent inhibition activities in vitro studies against pseudotyped or replication-competent Orthoebolavirus. Therefore, we further evaluated one of them in a mouse model challenged with mice-adapted Ebola viruses, which showed some protection efficacy compared with the control group. This study suggests that ligand-based peptides are encouraging inhibitors in the development of inhibitors against Ebola virus infection.