Hantaviruses are members of the Bunyaviridae family of viruses. Pathogenic hantaviruses are the etiologic agents of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), a disease principally endemic in the Old World, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a disease primarily restricted to the Americas. Maporal virus (MPRLV), a recently isolated hantavirus, has been found to cause disease in hamsters that resembles HPS in humans. However, the virus has not been linked to human cases of HPS. Considerable evidence suggests that β-integrin usage mediating infection may serve to distinguish hantaviruses pathogenic to humans from nonpathogenic, but this receptor usage pattern information is not yet available for MPRLV. Although ribavirin has been shown to be effective in treating HFRS, it lacks specificity and has toxicity. Moreover, there are no effective antivirals for the treatment of HPS. Considering the above, we have investigated MPRLV 1) β-integrin-mediated mechanism of entry, 2) genetic determinants of pathogenicity, and 3) susceptibility to the promising antiviral, favipiravir (T-705). Using antibodies targeting specific integrin chains, we found infection of Vero E6 cells with MPRLV to be dependent on β3-integrins, similar to that reported for other pathogenic hantaviruses such as Dobrava virus (DOBV) included in our studies. β1-integrin chain-specific antibodies and fibronectin did not block MPRLV or DOBV infectivity as observed with the nonpathogenic Prospect Hill Virus (PHV). Phylogenic analysis of characteristic degron sequences and ITAM motifs in the G1 cytoplasmic tails of MPRLV and other hantaviruses emphasizes the close genetic proximity of MPRLV to other HPS-causing hantaviruses. Favipiravir, a pyrazine derivative reported to be active against related bunyaviruses, was found to be active against MPRLV, DOBV, and PHV (EC50 = 65 - 93 µM) with therapeutic indexes of 74, 52, and 58, respectively. The data presented suggests that MPRLV may be pathogenic to humans and that it and other hantaviruses tested are sensitive to favipiravir in cell culture.

This thesis deals with the synthesis of prodrugs based on analogs of nucleoside phosphonates derived from 6-fluoro-3-hydroxypyrazine-2-carboxamide (T-705) and 3- hydroxypyrazine-2-carboxamide (T-1105). T-705 and T-1105 act as inhibitors of an influenza RNA polymerase. Both compounds mimic naturally occurring nucleobases, so their fluorinated nucleoside phosphonates could also be biologically active. Derivatives of 2-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-ribose (2-FdR) were prepared in this work. Because of complications during the syntthesis of 3-deoxy-3-fluoro-D-ribose (3-FdR) derivatives, 5- deoxy-5-fluoro-D-xylose (5-FdX) derivatives were prepared instead. Deoxyfluorination was done after incorporation of suitable protecting groups followed by selective deprotection and phosphonate binding. Furthermore nucleosides were synthetised using silyl-Hilbert-Johnson method and their bis-POM derivattives were also prepared. Key words: favipiravir (T-705), T-1105, prodrugs, phosphonates, fluorinated nucleosides

The structure and dynamics of membranes are crucial to ensure the proper functioning of cells. There are some compounds used in therapeutics that show nonspecific interactions with membranes in addition to their specific molecular target. Among them, two compounds recently used in therapeutics against COVID-19, remdesivir and favipiravir, were subjected to molecular dynamics simulation assays. In these, we demonstrated that the compounds can spontaneously bind to model lipid membranes in the presence or absence of cholesterol. These findings correlate with the corresponding experimental results recently reported by our group. In conclusion, insertion of the compounds into the membrane is observed, with a mean position close to the phospholipid head groups.

Chikungunya is a mosquito-transmitted disease caused by Chikungunya virus (CHIKV). Symptoms of Chikungunya include debilitating joint pain and swelling, fever and rash. CHIKV was first discovered in 1953 in Tanzania, and has since caused periodic outbreaks of disease. The virus reemerged recently in 2004 and has since spread around the world affecting more than 3 million people. The different strains of CHIKV have been grouped into three phylogenetic clades: West African, Asian and East/Central/South African (ECSA). There are no FDA approved medicines or vaccines used to treat or prevent CHIKV infection. The antiviral drug, T-705 (commercially known as Favipiravir), has recently been shown to have activity against CHIKV. T-705 has already been approved in Japan for the treatment of influenza and is currently going through clinical trials in the US. Since there may be phenotypic differences between the clades of CHIKV, it is important to first characterize distinctions between the strains and determine the susceptibility of these strains to treatment. To do this, we obtained two different CHIKV strains from each of the three phylogenetic groups. These CHIKV strains displayed differences in their ability to replicate in cell culture and exhibited only slight differences in susceptibility to T-705 treatment. However, more profound differences were observed in mouse models where differences in disease severity and response to T-705 treatment were observed.

En dépit d’épidémies répétées, il n’existe pas à ce jour de thérapeutique ayant démontré son efficacité dans la maladie à virus Ebola. Sur la base d’expérimentations réalisées chez la souris et le macaque dans le cadre du consortium Reaction!, l’objectif de cette thèse visait à caractériser l’effet d’une molécule antivirale, le favipiravir, via l’implémentation de modèles mathématiques mécanistiques de l’infection et de la réponse immunitaire associée. L’approche utilisée pour construire ces modèles et en estimer les paramètres reposait sur les modèles non linéaires à effets mixtes. Un premier travail a permis d’explorer la relation concentration-effet sur la charge virale plasmatique chez la souris. Le second projet a conduit à caractériser la pharmacocinétique non linéaire dose et temps dépendante du favipiravir chez le macaque, en vue d’identifier les schémas posologiques pertinents pour la réalisation des études d’efficacité chez l’animal infecté. Au décours de leur réalisation, l’intégration des données virologiques et immunitaires générées au sein d’un modèle conjoint a permis de caractériser un effet modéré du favipiravir sur la réplication virale, mais suffisant pour limiter le développement d’une réaction inflammatoire délétère, et ainsi améliorer le taux de survie des animaux traités. Les simulations réalisées avec ce modèle ont pu souligner l’impact déterminant du délai d’initiation du traitement sur la survie. Ces résultats incitent à la poursuite de l’évaluation clinique du favipiravir, en favorisant des essais de prophylaxie ou post exposition. Enfin, un dernier travail a démontré l’absence de potentialisation du favipiravir par la ribavirine dans Ebola. / In spite of recurrent outbreaks, no therapeutics with demonstrated clinical efficacy are available in Ebola virus disease. Based on experimentations performed by Reaction! Consortium in mice and macaques, this thesis aimed to characterize the effect of an antiviral drug, favipiravir, using mechanistic mathematical models of the infection and associated immune response. The approach to build models and estimate parameters relied on nonlinear mixed effect models. The first project of this thesis explored the concentration-effect relationship on the viremia in mice. Then, a second project allowed to characterize the pharmacokinetics of favipiravir in macaques, underlying dose and time non linearity, and to identify relevant dosing regimen for efficacy experiments in infected animals. Once these experiments completed, the integration of the virological and immunological data into a mechanistic joint model shed light on the effect of favipiravir. The moderate inhibition of the viral replication resulting from the favipiravir plasma concentrations was enough to limit the development of a deleterious inflammatory response, and thus improve the survival rate of treated macaques. Simulations performed with this model underlined the crucial impact of the treatment initiation delay on survival. These results encourage the pursuit of the clinical evaluation of favipiravir in prophylaxis or post exposure trials. Finally, a last project demonstrated the lack of benefit of ribavirin addition to favipiravir in Ebola virus disease.

This thesis deals with the preparation of acyclic nucleosides and nucleoside phosphonates of compounds T-705 (6-fluoro-3-hydroxypyrazine-2-carboxamide) and T-1105 (3-hydroxypyrazine-2-carboxamide). Acyclic nucleoside phosphonates are substances that can terminate viral RNA or DNA replication, and some of them are used in the treatment of viral diseases. T-705 and T-1105 have shown activity against the influenza virus, and T-705 has already been approved for its treatment in Japan. Since both compounds mimic natural nucleobases in the body, their acyclic nucleosides and nucleoside phosphonates also have the potential to be biologically active. Methods for the synthesis of 3-fluoro-2-(phosphonomethoxy)propyl and 3-hydroxy-2-(phosphonomethoxy)propyl derivatives of T-705 and T-1105, their prodrugs containing lipophilic groups for the improvement of the pharmacokinetic properties and also their phosphonate diphosphates, suitable for the biological activity measurements, have been proposed. Some of these derivatives were subsequently prepared. Key words: acyclic nucleosides, acyclic nucleoside phosphonates, T-705, T-1105, favipiravir, antiviral activity, influenza