CNS damage and Drug therapeutics for Sars-Cov-2.

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

There is a limited number of anti-viral available for treatment of viral diseases. Indeed, very few of the drug compounds being tested for treatment of Covid-19 have resulted in promising outcomes. We utilized known plant-derived compounds that have shown potential anti-viral activities to determine if they had an effect on limiting coronavirus replication in relevant cell lines (lung and intestinal epithelial cells). To screen these drugs, we used the BSL-2 beta coronavirus OC-43. We found several compounds that showed some efficacy and selected the top 3 to analyze against Sars-Cov-2. Two of these compounds showed anti-viral activity against Sars-Cov-2 and are currently being analyzed for their ability to limit disease in a mouse model of Sars-Cov-2 infection. Our second project involves analyzing brain tissue samples from Covid-19 autopsy patients for virus infection of the CNS as well as changes in markers of brain capillary endothelial cell activation. We have stained some tissues sections for virus and are working on negative controls for analyzing whether Sars-Cov-2 induced activation or dysregulation of adhesion molecules and tight junction proteins.