1. Academic Validation
  2. Inhibitory effect on SARS-CoV-2 infection of neferine by blocking Ca2+ -dependent membrane fusion

Inhibitory effect on SARS-CoV-2 infection of neferine by blocking Ca2+ -dependent membrane fusion

  • J Med Virol. 2021 Oct;93(10):5825-5832. doi: 10.1002/jmv.27117.
Yang Yang 1 Peng Yang 1 2 Cong Huang 1 3 Yuming Wu 1 Zhe Zhou 1 Xuejun Wang 1 Shengqi Wang 1 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Beijing, China.
  • 2 College of Life Sciences, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China.
  • 3 Cooperative Innovation Center for Molecular Target New Drug Study, University of South China, Hengyang, China.
Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has focused attention on the need to develop effective therapeutics against the causative pathogen, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and also against other pathogenic coronaviruses. In this study, we report on a kind of bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid, neferine, as a pan-coronavirus entry inhibitor. Neferine effectively protected HEK293/hACE2 and HuH7 cell lines from Infection by different coronaviruses pseudovirus particles (SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-2 [D614G, N501Y/D614G, 501Y.V1, 501Y.V2, 501Y.V3 variants], SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV) in vitro, with median effect concentration (EC50 ) of 0.13-0.41 μM. Neferine blocked host calcium channels, thus inhibiting Ca2+ -dependent membrane fusion and suppressing virus entry. This study provides experimental data to support the fact that neferine may be a promising lead for pan-coronaviruses therapeutic drug development.

Keywords

Ca2+-dependency; SARS-CoV-2; entry inhibitor; membrane fusion; neferine.

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