5-amino levulinic acid inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro

  1. Yasuteru Sakurai
  2. Mya Myat Ngwe Tun
  3. Yohei Kurosaki
  4. Takaya Sakura
  5. Daniel Ken Inaoka
  6. Kiyotaka Fujine
  7. Kiyoshi Kita
  8. Kouichi Morita
  9. Jiro Yasuda

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Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic requires urgent development of effective therapeutics. 5-amino levulinic acid (5-ALA) is a naturally synthesized amino acid and has been used for multiple purposes including as an anticancer therapy and as a dietary supplement due to its high bioavailability. In this study, we demonstrated that 5-ALA treatment potently inhibited infection of SARS-CoV-2, a causative agent of COVID-19. The antiviral effects could be detected in both human and non-human cells, without significant cytotoxicity. Therefore, 5-ALA is a candidate as an oral antiviral drug for COVID-19.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.28.355305: (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

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    For immunostaining, goat serum (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA), rabbit anti-SARS-CoV N antibody (NOVUS, Centennial, CO), Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-rabbit IgG (ThermoFisher Scientific) and Hoechst33342 dye (ThermoFisher Scientific) was used. 2.2.
    anti-SARS-CoV N
    suggested: None
    anti-rabbit IgG
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Virus propagation: A JPN/NGS/IA-1/2020 strain of SARS-CoV-2 (GISAID accession no. EPI-ISL-481251), which was isolated from a Japanese patient, was propagated in VeroE6 cells.
    VeroE6
    suggested: JCRB Cat# JCRB1819, RRID:CVCL_YQ49)
    After 2 days (VeroE6 cells) or 3 days (Caco-2 cells), the cells were fixed using 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA) overnight.
    Caco-2
    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 10.1101/2020.10.28.355305 on bioRxiv