Human ACE2 peptide mimics block SARS-CoV-2 Pulmonary Cells Infection

  1. Philippe Karoyan
  2. Vincent Vieillard
  3. Estelle Odile
  4. Alexis Denis
  5. Amélie Guihot
  6. Charles-Edouard Luyt
  7. Luis Gómez-Morales
  8. Pascal Grondin
  9. Olivier Lequin

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Abstract

In the light of the recent accumulated knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 and its mode of human cells invasion, the binding of viral spike glycoprotein to human Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (hACE2) receptor plays a central role in cell entry. We designed a series of peptides mimicking the N -terminal helix of hACE2 protein which contains most of the contacting residues at the binding site and have a high helical folding propensity in aqueous solution. Our best peptide mimics bind to the virus spike protein with high affinity and are able to block SARS-CoV-2 human pulmonary cell infection with an inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) in the nanomolar range. These first in class blocking peptide mimics represent powerful tools that might be used in prophylactic and therapeutic approaches to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.24.264077: (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
    Toxicity study on Vero-E6 cells and Calu3: Cell viability was measured by MTT assays after treatment with 0, 0.1, 1.0 or 10 μM of the indicated peptide for 24, 48, or 72 h.
    Vero-E6
    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.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.24.264077v2 on bioRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.24.264077v1 on bioRxiv