Cetylpyridinium chloride-containing mouthwashes reduce the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 variants in vitro

  1. Jordana Muñoz-Basagoiti
  2. Daniel Perez-Zsolt
  3. Rubén León
  4. Vanessa Blanc
  5. Dàlia Raïch-Regué
  6. Mary Cano-Sarabia
  7. Benjamin Trinité
  8. Edwards Pradenas
  9. Julià Blanco
  10. Joan Gispert
  11. Bonaventura Clotet
  12. Nuria Izquierdo-Useros

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Oral mouthwashes decrease the infectivity of several respiratory viruses including SARS-CoV-2. However, the precise agents with antiviral activity present in these oral rinses and their exact mechanism of action remain unknown. Here we show that Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), a quaternary ammonium compound present in many oral mouthwashes, reduces SARS-CoV-2 infectivity by inhibiting the viral fusion step with target cells after disrupting the integrity of the viral envelope. We also found that CPC-containing mouth rinses decreased more than a thousand times the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro , while the corresponding vehicles had no effect. This activity was effective for different SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the B.1.1.7 variant, predominant in UK, also in the presence of sterilized saliva. CPC-containing mouth rinses could therefore represent a cost-effective measure to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in saliva, aiding to reduce viral transmission from infected individuals regardless of the variants they are infected with.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.21.423779: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Virus isolation, titration and sequencing: SARS-CoV-2 was isolated from a nasopharyngeal swab collected from an 89-year-old male patient giving informed consent and treated with Betaferon and hydroxychloroquine for 2 days before sample collection as described in (Rodon, 2020).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableVirus isolation, titration and sequencing: SARS-CoV-2 was isolated from a nasopharyngeal swab collected from an 89-year-old male patient giving informed consent and treated with Betaferon and hydroxychloroquine for 2 days before sample collection as described in (Rodon, 2020).
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Spike plasmid was transfected with X-tremeGENE HP Transfection Reagent (Merck) into HEK-293T cells, and 24 hours post-transfection, cells were transfected with pNL4-3.Luc.R-.E-.
    HEK-293T
    suggested: None
    The virus was propagated for two passages and a virus stock was prepared collecting the supernatant from Vero E6.
    Vero E6
    suggested: RRID:CVCL_XD71)
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All analyses and figures were generated with the GraphPad Prism v8.0b Software.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    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 did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    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 10.1101/2020.12.21.423779 on bioRxiv