Combating pan-coronavirus infection by indomethacin through simultaneously inhibiting viral replication and inflammatory response

oleh: Yining Wang, Pengfei Li, Lei Xu, Annemarie C. de Vries, Robbert J. Rottier, Wenshi Wang, Marie-Rose B.S. Crombag, Maikel P. Peppelenbosch, Denis E. Kainov, Qiuwei Pan

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2023-09-01

Deskripsi

Summary: Severe infections with coronaviruses are often accompanied with hyperinflammation, requiring therapeutic strategies to simultaneously tackle the virus and inflammation. By screening a safe-in-human broad-spectrum antiviral agents library, we identified that indomethacin can inhibit pan-coronavirus infection in human cell and airway organoids models. Combining indomethacin with oral antiviral drugs authorized for treating COVID-19 results in synergistic anti-coronavirus activity. Coincidentally, screening a library of FDA-approved drugs identified indomethacin as the most potent potentiator of interferon response through increasing STAT1 phosphorylation. Combining indomethacin with interferon-alpha exerted synergistic antiviral effects against multiple coronaviruses. The anti-coronavirus activity of indomethacin is associated with activating interferon response. In a co-culture system of lung epithelial cells with macrophages, indomethacin inhibited both viral replication and inflammatory response. Collectively, indomethacin is a pan-coronavirus inhibitor that can simultaneously inhibit virus-triggered inflammatory response. The therapeutic potential of indomethacin can be further augmented by combining it with oral antiviral drugs or interferon-alpha.