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. 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 four to analyze against Sars-Cov-2. Three of these compounds showed anti-viral activity against Sars-Cov-2. One of these compounds was tested in a mouse model of Sars-Cov-2 infection and shown to have efficacy. These studies are currently being written up as a manuscript. 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 to examine if SARS-CoV-2 infects the CNS and what cells are infected.