1. Academic Validation
  2. Plitidepsin has potent preclinical efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 by targeting the host protein eEF1A

Plitidepsin has potent preclinical efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 by targeting the host protein eEF1A

  • Science. 2021 Feb 26;371(6532):926-931. doi: 10.1126/science.abf4058.
Kris M White  # 1 2 Romel Rosales  # 3 2 Soner Yildiz 3 2 Thomas Kehrer 3 2 Lisa Miorin 3 2 Elena Moreno 3 2 Sonia Jangra 3 2 Melissa B Uccellini 3 2 Raveen Rathnasinghe 3 2 Lynda Coughlan 4 Carles Martinez-Romero 3 2 Jyoti Batra 5 6 7 8 Ajda Rojc 5 6 7 8 Mehdi Bouhaddou 5 6 7 8 Jacqueline M Fabius 5 7 Kirsten Obernier 5 6 7 8 Marion Dejosez 9 María José Guillén 10 Alejandro Losada 10 Pablo Avilés 10 Michael Schotsaert 3 2 Thomas Zwaka 9 Marco Vignuzzi 11 Kevan M Shokat 5 7 8 12 Nevan J Krogan 1 5 6 7 8 Adolfo García-Sastre 1 2 13 14
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. kris.white@mssm.edu nevan.krogan@ucsf.edu adolfo.garcia-sastre@mssm.edu.
  • 2 Global Health Emerging Pathogens Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
  • 3 Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
  • 4 Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD), University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
  • 5 Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI), University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
  • 6 J. David Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
  • 7 QBI Coronavirus Research Group (QCRG), San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
  • 8 Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
  • 9 Huffington Foundation Center for Cell-Based Research in Parkinson's Disease, Department of Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology, Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
  • 10 Research and Development Department, PharmaMar, 28770 Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, Spain.
  • 11 Viral Populations and Pathogenesis Unit, CNRS UMR 3569, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France.
  • 12 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
  • 13 Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
  • 14 Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Viral Proteins interact with the eukaryotic translation machinery, and inhibitors of translation have potent Antiviral effects. We found that the drug plitidepsin (aplidin), which has limited clinical approval, possesses Antiviral activity (90% inhibitory concentration = 0.88 nM) that is more potent than remdesivir against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro by a factor of 27.5, with limited toxicity in Cell Culture. Through the use of a drug-resistant mutant, we show that the Antiviral activity of plitidepsin against SARS-CoV-2 is mediated through inhibition of the known target eEF1A (eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1A). We demonstrate the in vivo efficacy of plitidepsin treatment in two mouse models of SARS-CoV-2 Infection with a reduction of viral replication in the lungs by two orders of magnitude using prophylactic treatment. Our results indicate that plitidepsin is a promising therapeutic candidate for COVID-19.

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