Institute of
bioorganic chemistry

Rose Bengal (BR) is an anionic xanthene dye that is actively used as a photosensitizer, mainly for antibacterial and antitumor photodynamic therapy. The use of BR and its derivatives for virus inactivation has not been comprehensively studied. A team of scientists from the Department of functioning of living systems IBCh RAS in collaboration with colleagues from other Russian Institutes used a synthetic approach based on the successful design of photosensitizing antivirals to obtain BR derivatives for virus photoinactivation. A number of N-alkyl-substituted derivatives with the same ¹O₂ generation efficiency but completely different activity against SARS-CoV-2, CHIKV, and HIV have been synthesized and studied. Several compounds have activities in the submicromolar-subnanomolar ranges and high selectivity indices. The synthesized compounds are promising candidates for the development of inactivated vaccines. The work was published in Biomolecules (IF = 6.064).