Identification of a pharmacological approach to reduce ACE2 expression and development of an COVID-19 viral entry model.

J Virus Erad

Division of Biotechnology Review and Research 1 (DBRR1), Office of Biotechnology Products (OBP), Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.

Published: December 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • Scientists are trying to find new medicines to treat COVID-19 because of fast-spreading variants like Omicron that can avoid antibodies.
  • They created a special cell model to study how a protein called ACE2 helps the virus enter human cells and how to reduce ACE2 levels.
  • The best results came from using two specific drugs together, which helped stop the virus from getting into certain human cells, suggesting a way to find new treatments for COVID-19.

Article Abstract

Because of rapid emergence and circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 variants, especially Omicron which shows increased transmissibility and resistant to antibodies, there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutic drugs to treat COVID-19. In this study we developed an cellular model to explore the regulation of ACE2 expression and its correlation with ACE2-mediated viral entry. We examined ACE2 expression in a variety of human cell lines, some of which are commonly used to study SARS-CoV-2. Using the developed model, we identified a number of inhibitors which reduced ACE2 protein expression. The greatest reduction of ACE2 expression was observed when CK869, an inhibitor of the actin-related protein 2/3 (ARP2/3) complex, was combined with 5-(N-ethyl-N-isopropyl)-amiloride (EIPA), an inhibitor of sodium-hydrogen exchangers (NHEs), after treatment for 24 h. Using pseudotyped lentivirus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 full-length spike protein, we found that ACE2-dependent viral entry was inhibited in CK869 + EIPA-treated Calu-3 and MDA-MB-468 cells. This study provides an model that can be used for the screening of novel therapeutic candidates that may be warranted for further pre-clinical and clinical studies on COVID-19 countermeasures.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9733118PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jve.2022.100307DOI Listing

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