Antiviral activities of 15 dengue NS2B-NS3 protease inhibitors using a human cell-based viral quantification assay.

•There are an estimated 50–100million dengue infections annually worldwide.•The viral NS2B-NS3 protease is deemed a plausible drug target.•15 inhibitors published between 2003 and 2013 were screened using our viral titer assay.•The most potent compound, an anthraquinone, reduced viral titer 10-fold at 1μM.•This could serve as a plausible scaffold for further medicinal chemistry efforts.