2023-06-06 15:45:31
The search for antivirals is a priority in virology. Although the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have moderated its effects on the world population, it is far from over. Also, sooner or later we will have to deal with other viral threats, probably caused by coronaviruses or other viruses.
In this context, the Neurovirology Laboratory of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in Spain has discovered a natural polymer that exerts a potent antiviral effect in vivo against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. .
This finding is the result of an investigation carried out by a team that includes the pre-doctoral student Sabina Andreu and José Antonio López Guerrero and Raquel Bello-Morales as main researchers of the project.
Numerous researchers have participated in the study, not only from the UAM and the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center (CBMSO), but also from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the University of Lleida and the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB), to which the prestigious coronavirus reference laboratory of researchers Luis Enjuanes and Sonia Zúñiga, both co-authors of the study, belongs.
The in vitro antiviral effect of numerous anionic polymers on enveloped viruses, such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or the herpes simplex virus (HSV), has already been known for decades. However, their low bioavailability, that is, the difficulty for these substances to reach infected areas without degrading, caused research into this type of polymer as antiviral to decline.
The team led by professors López Guerrero and Bello-Morales suggested that, using an inhalation route of administration, perhaps these polymers could reach the surface of lung tissue without degrading, thus preventing the entry of viruses into lung cells. Tests on mice, carried out in the level 3 biosafety laboratory of the CBMSO Animal Facility, have supported this hypothesis for the first time, in such a way that the polymer used, dextran sulfate produced by the lactic acid bacterium Leuconostoc mesenteroides, was able to inhibit the infection of mice inoculated with coronavirus.
Image captured using an electron microscope, and reprocessed with false colors, showing a human cell (in purple) brimming with viral particles of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic disease. (Image: NIAID/NIH)
Since these polymers are non-specific, it is likely that the dextran sulfate analyzed in this work could be effective not only against coronaviruses, but also against other respiratory viruses, such as the influenza virus or the respiratory syncytial virus. In fact, the study has proven the antiviral efficacy of the polymer not only against coronaviruses, but also against other enveloped viruses. It remains to be verified whether these substances are safe and effective in humans, which the research team has as a long-term goal.
The study is titled “Dextran sulfate from Leuconostoc mesenteroides B512F exerts potent antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro and in vivo”. And it has been published in the academic journal Frontiers in Microbiology. (Source: UAM)
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