Inflammation cellular platform (INCEPLAT) for testing anti-inflammatory compounds for SARS-CoV-2

From the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, an excessive release of proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL6, was detected in serum from patients. As a consequence, several anti-inflammatory drugs, such as Dexamethasone (a strong corticoid), were used to counteract such cytokine storm occurring during severe disease. By contrast, pro-inflammatory interleukin 11 (IL11), a member of the IL6 family, was detected in respiratory tissues from infected patients and in experimental epithelial cellular models. In this work, human A549 lung epithelial cells were individually transduced with SARS-CoV-2 open reading frames (ORFs), resulting in a IL11 increase, which was significantly decreased after Dexamethasone treatment. The use of this cellular platform allowed us to screen for new possible anti-inflammatory compounds from Fasciola hepatica . Our results highlighted the ability of FhNEJ ( Fasciola hepatica newly excysted juvenile flukes) somatic extract to decrease IL11 levels in ORF-transduced cells. These results emphasized the role of IL11 in lung epithelial inflammation, making it a potential target for future treatments of lung inflammation which occurs in COVID-19, and validate the use of these ORF-expressing cells as a cellular platform to test anti-inflammatory compounds for COVID-19 disease.