Influenza is a serious global contagious disease that leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. Currently, influenza vaccines and anti-influenza drugs are the primary means for protection against and treatment of influenza. However, both of them have some disadvantages. It is necessary to find new anti-influenza lead compounds from natural product.

Rupestonic acid was isolated from Artemisia rupestris L. (Chinese name is Yizhihao), a traditional Chinese medicine used in Xinjiang, China. Researchers in Xinjiang Technical Insititute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, took the lead in synthesizing several series of derivatives of rupestonic acid. On the basis of previous study, a series of aminoalkyl rupestonates were designed and synthesized using rupestonic acid as the starting material. All of the new compounds were bioassayed in vitro to determine their activities against influenza A (H3N2, H1N1) and B viruses. The results showed that compounds which each contained a 1H-1,2,4-triazolyl moiety, were found to be the most potent set of compounds. The variations in the alkyl chain length and the type of amine moiety had dramatic impacts on the inhibitory potency and the selectivity of the aminoalkyl rupestonates. Compound rupestonic acid-10-(1H-1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-decyl ester might be potentially developed as new anti-influenza lead compounds. Further studies of the mechanism of action are underway.

The study entitled “Synthesis and Anti-influenza Activity of Aminoalkyl Rupestonates” has been published on Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2012, 22: 2321-2325

This work was financially supported by the High Technology Research and Development Program of Xinjiang, the China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.