A viral assembly inhibitor blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication in airway epithelial cells

Autor: Li Du, Fred Deiter, Mohamed S. Bouzidi, Jean-Noël Billaud, Graham Simmons, Prerna Dabral, Suganya Selvarajah, Anuradha F. Lingappa, Maya Michon, Shao Feng Yu, Kumar Paulvannan, Balaji Manicassamy, Vishwanath R. Lingappa, Homer Boushey, John R. Greenland, Satish K. Pillai
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Communications Biology, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2399-3642
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06130-8
Popis: Abstract The ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 to evade vaccines and therapeutics underlines the need for innovative therapies with high genetic barriers to resistance. Therefore, there is pronounced interest in identifying new pharmacological targets in the SARS-CoV-2 viral life cycle. The small molecule PAV-104, identified through a cell-free protein synthesis and assembly screen, was recently shown to target host protein assembly machinery in a manner specific to viral assembly. In this study, we investigate the capacity of PAV-104 to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in human airway epithelial cells (AECs). We show that PAV-104 inhibits >99% of infection with diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants in immortalized AECs, and in primary human AECs cultured at the air-liquid interface (ALI) to represent the lung microenvironment in vivo. Our data demonstrate that PAV-104 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 production without affecting viral entry, mRNA transcription, or protein synthesis. PAV-104 interacts with SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) and interferes with its oligomerization, blocking particle assembly. Transcriptomic analysis reveals that PAV-104 reverses SARS-CoV-2 induction of the type-I interferon response and the maturation of nucleoprotein signaling pathway known to support coronavirus replication. Our findings suggest that PAV-104 is a promising therapeutic candidate for COVID-19 with a mechanism of action that is distinct from existing clinical management approaches.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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