2. Academic Validation
  3. Ethacridine inhibits SARS-CoV-2 by inactivating viral particles

Ethacridine inhibits SARS-CoV-2 by inactivating viral particles

  • PLoS Pathog. 2021 Sep 3;17(9):e1009898. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009898.
Xiaoquan Li 1 2,  Peter V Lidsky 3,  Yinghong Xiao 3,  Chien-Ting Wu 4,  Miguel Garcia-Knight 3,  Junjiao Yang 1 2,  Tsuguhisa Nakayama 5,  Jayakar V Nayak 5,  Peter K Jackson 4,  Raul Andino 3,  Xiaokun Shu 1 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
  • 2 Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
  • 3 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
  • 4 Department of Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Stanford University, California, United States of America.
  • 5 Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America.
PMID: 34478458 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009898
Abstract

The respiratory disease COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Here we report the discovery of ethacridine as a potent drug against SARS-CoV-2 (EC50 ~ 0.08 μM). Ethacridine was identified via high-throughput screening of an FDA-approved drug library in living cells using a fluorescence assay. Plaque assays, RT-PCR and immunofluorescence imaging at various stages of viral Infection demonstrate that the main mode of action of ethacridine is through inactivation of viral particles, preventing their binding to the host cells. Consistently, ethacridine is effective in various cell types, including primary human nasal epithelial cells that are cultured in an air-liquid interface. Taken together, our work identifies a promising, potent, and new use of the old drug via a distinct mode of action for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2.

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