Azithromycin Plus Zinc Sulfate Rapidly and Synergistically Suppresses IκBα-Mediated In Vitro Human Airway Cell ACE2 Expression for SARS-CoV-2 Entry
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Abstract
Large-scale efforts have been persistently undertaken for medical prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19 disasters worldwide. A variety of novel viral spike protein-targeted vaccine preparations have recently been clinically distributed based on accelerated approval. We revisited the early but inconclusive clinical interest in the combination of azithromycin and zinc sulfate repurposing with safety advantages. In vitro proof of concept was provided for rapid and synergistic suppression of ACE2 expression following treatments in human airway cells, Calu-3 and H322M. The two representative ACE2-expressing human airway cells indicate the upper and lower respiratory tracts. Prophylactic and early therapeutic roles of azithromycin combined with zinc are proposed for virus cellular entry prevention potential bridging to effective antibody production.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.19.427206: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Cell Line Authentication not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources Western blots were carried out with ACE-2 antibody (Bioss, Woburn, MA, USA), IKB-α antibody (Santa Cruz, Dallas, TX, USA) and PARP antibody (Cell Signaling, Danvers, MA, USA); α-tubulin antibody (Novus, Littleton, CO, USA) was used as a loading control. IKB-αsuggested: NonePARPsuggested: Noneα-tubulinsuggested: NoneExperimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources Cell lines and drug treatments: The H322M, H522, H460 and A549 human airway cells were … SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.19.427206: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Cell Line Authentication not detected. Table 2: Resources
Antibodies Sentences Resources Western blots were carried out with ACE-2 antibody (Bioss, Woburn, MA, USA), IKB-α antibody (Santa Cruz, Dallas, TX, USA) and PARP antibody (Cell Signaling, Danvers, MA, USA); α-tubulin antibody (Novus, Littleton, CO, USA) was used as a loading control. IKB-αsuggested: NonePARPsuggested: Noneα-tubulinsuggested: NoneExperimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources Cell lines and drug treatments: The H322M, H522, H460 and A549 human airway cells were courtesy of SLY (National Taiwan University), and the H1299 lung cancer cell line was courtesy of CCH (National Taiwan University Hospital). H460suggested: NoneA549suggested: NoneH1299suggested: NCI-DTP Cat# NCI-H1299, RRID:CVCL_0060)The Calu-3 cells were cultured with MEM (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) containing 20% (v/v) fetal bovine serum (Thermo Fisher Scientific), 100 mM sodium pyruvate, nonessential amino acids and penicillin-streptomycin in a humidified 5% CO2 atmosphere. Calu-3suggested: NoneAfter seeding at a density of 1×106 cells per 6-well plate, Calu-3 and H322M cells were incubated for 20 h at 37 °C in 5% CO2. H322Msuggested: NCI-DTP Cat# NCI-H322M, RRID:CVCL_1557)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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