Ebselen, Disulfiram, Carmofur, PX-12, Tideglusib, and Shikonin Are Nonspecific Promiscuous SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors

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Abstract

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.15.299164: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    39 Cytopathic Effect Assay (CPE): The EC50 and CC50 values for the protease inhibitors investigated in this study were measured using RD cells as described previously.32 Briefly, RD cells were seeded and grown overnight to ∼90% confluence in 96-well plate at 37 °C 5% CO2 incubator.
    RD
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Organisms/Strains
    SentencesResources
    EV-A71 2Apro: EV-A71 2Apro gene from strain EV-A71/7D3 (genbank accession number MF973167) with E. coli codon optimization was ordered from GenScript in the pET28b(+) vector.
    EV-A71 2Apro: EV-A71 2Apro
    suggested: None
    EV-A71 3Cpro: EV-A71 3Cpro gene from strain EV-A71/7D3 (genbank accession number MF973167) with E. coli codon optimization was ordered from GenScript in the pET28b(+) vector.
    EV-A71 3Cpro: EV-A71 3Cpro
    suggested: None
    EV-A71 3Cpro substrate: Dabcyl-IEALFQ/GPPKFRE-Edan EV-D68 2Apro substrate: Dabcyl-KIRIVNT/GPGFGGE-Edan EV-D68 3Cpro substrate: Dabcyl-KEALFQ/GPPQFE-Edans The synthesis of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, PLpro, EV-A71 2Apro, EV-D68 2Apro and EV-D68 3Cpro substrates were described previously.11, 33 Enzymatic assays: The IC50 values of the testing compounds against various SARS-CoV-2, EV-A71 and EV-D68 proteases in the presence or in the absence of 4 mM DTT were measured with a common protocol as the following: 100 µl protease (SARS-CoV-2 Mpro at 100 nM; SARS-CoV-2 PLpro at 200 nM; EV-A71 2Apro at 3 µM; EV-A71 3Cpro at 2 µM, EV-D68 2Apro at 1 µM, or EV-D68 3Cpro at 100 nM) was incubated with various concentrations of testing inhibitors at 30°C for 30 min in its reaction buffer in 96-well plate, and then the reaction was initiated by adding FRET substrate (SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and PLpro substrates at 10 µM; and EV-A71 and EV-D68 substrates at 20 µM), the reaction was monitored for 2□h, and the initial velocity was calculated using the data from the first 15□min by linear regression.
    EV-A71 3Cpro substrate: Dabcyl-IEALFQ/GPPKFRE-Edan EV-D68 2Apro substrate: Dabcyl-KIRIVNT/GPGFGGE-Edan EV-D68 3Cpro
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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