Highly potent and long-acting trimeric and tetrameric inhibitors of influenza virus neuraminidase

A set of trimeric and tetrameric derivatives 6– 11 of the influenza virus neuraminidase inhibitor zanamivir 1 have been synthesized by coupling a common monomeric zanamivir derivative 3 onto various multimeric carboxylic acid core groups. These discrete multimeric compounds are all significantly more antiviral than zanamivir and also show outstanding long-lasting protective activity when tested in mouse influenza infectivity experiments. Multimeric derivatives of the influenza drug zanamivir show superior in vivo activity.