Large scale screening discovers clofoctol as an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 replication that reduces COVID-19-like pathology - Archive ouverte HAL Access content directly
Preprints, Working Papers, ... Year :

Large scale screening discovers clofoctol as an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 replication that reduces COVID-19-like pathology

Loïc Belloy
  • Function : Author
Camille Moreau
Terence Beghyn
  • Function : Author

Abstract

The fastest way to implement a treatment against a new rapidly emerging viral disease consists in screening the potential antiviral activity of drugs approved for human use. This has the advantage of shortening regulatory preclinical development steps. Here, we screened a library of drug compounds, already registered in one or several geographical areas, to identify those exhibiting antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 with relevant potency. Of the 1,942 compounds tested, 21 exhibited a substantial antiviral activity in Vero-81 cells. Among them, clofoctol, an antibacterial drug used for the treatment of bacterial respiratory tract infections, was further investigated due to its favorable safety profile and its pharmacokinetic properties. Notably, the peak concentration of clofoctol that can be achieved in human lungs is more than 20 times higher than its IC 95 measured against SARS-CoV-2 in human pulmonary cells. Mechanistically, this compound inhibits SARS-CoV-2 at a post-entry step by specifically blocking translation initiation of viral RNA. Lastly, therapeutic treatment of human ACE2 receptor transgenic mice decreased viral load, reduced inflammatory gene expression and improved pulmonary pathology. Altogether, these data strongly support clofoctol as a therapeutic candidate for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Domains

Virology
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Belouzard et al.pdf (6.3 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)

Dates and versions

hal-03357964 , version 1 (29-09-2021)

Identifiers

Cite

Sandrine Belouzard, Arnaud Machelart, Valentin Sencio, Thibaut Vausselin, Eik Hoffmann, et al.. Large scale screening discovers clofoctol as an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 replication that reduces COVID-19-like pathology. 2021. ⟨hal-03357964⟩
205 View
65 Download

Altmetric

Share

Gmail Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More