Inhibition of Rhinovirus by Isatin Thiosemicarbazone Analogues

ISATIN 3-thiosemicarbazone is known to have antiviral activity against certain poxviruses 1,2 . The antiviral spectrum of 1-methylisatin 3-thiosemicarbazone, which reportedly extends to adenoviruses, may be rather broader but is still limited to several groups of DNA viruses 2,3 . It was therefore an unexpected finding that these compounds are also active against certain rhinoviruses. As a result, related heterocyclic compounds were tested of which several examples are shown here; two ( D and E ) were found to have activity against all rhinovirus strains used so far.