Inhibition of the protein kinase CSNK2 with any of 30 specific and selective inhibitors representing different chemotypes, blocked replication of pathogenic human, bat, and murine β-coronaviruses. The potency of in-cell CSNK2A target engagement across the set of inhibitors correlated with antiviral activity and genetic knockdown confirmed the essential role of the CSNK2 holoenzyme in β-coronavirus replication. Spike protein endocytosis was blocked by CSNK2A inhibition, indicating that antiviral activity was due in part to a suppression of viral entry. CSNK2A inhibition may be a viable target for the development of anti-SARS-like β-coronavirus drugs.
Defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) have been reported in COVID-19 patients, but the timing and organs affected vary among reports. Here, we reveal the dynamics of COVID-19 through transcription profiles in nasopharyngeal and autopsy samples from patients and infected rodent models. While mitochondrial bioenergetics is repressed in the viral nasopharyngeal portal of entry, it is up regulated in autopsy lung tissues from deceased patients. In most disease stages and organs, discrete OXPHOS functions are blocked by the virus, and this is countered by the host broadly up regulating unblocked OXPHOS functions. No such rebound is seen in autopsy heart, results in severe repression of genes across all OXPHOS modules. Hence, targeted enhancement of mitochondrial gene expression may mitigate the pathogenesis of COVID-19.
Inhibition of the protein kinase CSNK2 with any of 30 specific and selective inhibitors representing different chemotypes, blocked replication of pathogenic human and murine β-coronaviruses (β-CoV). The potency of in-cell CSNK2A target engagement across the set of inhibitors correlated with antiviral activity and genetic knockdown confirmed the essential role of the CSNK2 holoenzyme in β-CoV replication. Spike protein uptake was blocked by CSNK2A inhibition, indicating that antiviral activity was due in part to a suppression of viral entry. CSNK2A inhibition may be a viable target for development of new broad spectrum anti-β-CoV drugs.
From a designed library of indolyl pyrimidinamines, we identified a highly potent and cell-active chemical probe (17) that inhibits phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate 5-kinase (PIKfyve). Comprehensive evaluation of inhibitor selectivity confirmed that this PIKfyve probe demonstrates excellent kinome-wide selectivity. A structurally related indolyl pyrimidinamine (30) was characterized as a negative control that lacks PIKfyve inhibitory activity and exhibits exquisite selectivity when profiled broadly. Chemical probe 17 disrupts multiple phases of the lifecycle of β-coronaviruses: viral replication and viral entry. The diverse antiviral roles of PIKfyve have not been previously probed comprehensively in a single study or using the same compound set. Our scaffold is a distinct chemotype that lacks the canonical morpholine hinge-binder of classical lipid kinase inhibitors and has a non-overlapping kinase off-target profile with known PIKfyve inhibitors. Our chemical probe set can be used by the community to further characterize the role of PIKfyve in virology.
The portfolio of SARS-CoV-2 small molecule drugs is currently limited to a handful that are either approved (remdesivir), emergency approved (dexamethasone, baricitinib, paxlovid, and molnupiravir), or in advanced clinical trials. Vandetanib is a kinase inhibitor which targets the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), as well as the RET-tyrosine kinase. In the current study, it was tested in different cell lines and showed promising results on inhibition versus the toxic effect on A549-hACE2 cells (IC 50 0.79 μM) while also showing a reduction of >3 log TCID 50 /mL for HCoV-229E. The in vivo efficacy of vandetanib was assessed in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection and statistically significantly reduced the levels of IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α and mitigated inflammatory cell infiltrates in the lungs of infected animals but did not reduce viral load. Vandetanib also decreased CCL2, CCL3, and CCL4 compared to the infected animals. Vandetanib additionally rescued the decreased IFN-1β caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice to levels similar to that in uninfected animals. Our results indicate that the FDA-approved anticancer drug vandetanib is worthy of further assessment as a potential therapeutic candidate to block the COVID-19 cytokine storm.
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