A Nanobody-based TRIM-away targets the intracellular protein degradation of African swine fever virus

Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causative agent of African swine fever (ASF), a hemorrhagic illness with high fatality rates in domestic pigs that has resulted in a substantial socio-economic loss and threatens the global pork industry. Very few safe and efficient vaccines or compounds against ASF are commercially available, thus developing new antiviral strategies is urgently required. Targeted protein degradation (TPD) has emerged as one of the most innovative strategies for drug discovery. In this study, we generate Nanobody-based TRIM-aways specifically binding with and targeting ASFV-encoded structural proteins p30, p54, and p72 for degradation. Furthermore, nanobody-based trim-aways exhibit robust viral structural protein degradation capabilities in ASFV-infected iPAM and MA104 cells through both proteasomal and lysosomal pathways, concurrently demonstrating potent anti-ASFV activity with less viral production. Our study highlights the Nanobody-based TRIM-away targeting viral protein degradation as a potential candidate for the development of a novel antiviral strategy against ASF.