N-stearoylethanolamine - a new inhibitor of the hepatitis C virus reproduction

Aim. The study of the effect of endogenous cannabimimetic compound – N-stearoylethanolamine (NSE) on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) reproduction. Methods. The model of the surrogate HCV is a bovine diarrhea virus; cell culture model is cells transfected with cDNA of the human HCV and molecular docking has been used. Results. In vitro studies showed that NSE effectively inhibited the reproduction of a surrogate HCV in both MDBK cells and transfected Jurkat cells. Molecular docking suggested that NSE can bind to the active centers of both NS3 serine protease and HCV NS5B-polymerase and has an inhibitory effect on their activity. Conclusions. The obtained data confirm that using NSE is promising for the development of antiviral drug to suppress the HCV activity.