Synergistic Block of SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Combined Drug Inhibition of the Host Entry Factors PIKfyve Kinase and TMPRSS2 Protease

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Abstract

Infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) global pandemic. There are ongoing efforts to uncover effective antiviral agents that could mitigate the severity of the disease by controlling the ensuing viral replication.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.01.446623: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsField Sample Permit: Isolation and propagation of SARS-CoV-2: Human samples were obtained under the Helsinki University Hospital laboratory research permit 30 HUS/32/2018 § 16. Isolation of SARS-CoV-2 from a COVID-19 Briefly, a nasopharyngeal swab in 500 μl of Copan UTM® Universal Transport Medium was inoculated on Calu-3 cells (P1) and incubated for 1 h at 37°C, after which the inoculum was removed and replaced with Minimum Essential Medium supplemented with 2% FBS, L-glutamine, penicillin and streptomycin.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line AuthenticationContamination: The media was changed in all cell types every 2 days and regularly tested for presence of mycoplasma.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    H6021, Sigma-Aldrich), and Alexa 647 fluorescently labelled goat anti-rabbit antibody (Thermo Fisher, cat. A32733)
    anti-rabbit
    suggested: (Thermo Fisher Scientific Cat# A32733, RRID:AB_2633282)
    Briefly, viral NP was detected with an in house developed rabbit polyclonal antibody (31) counterstained with Alexa-647-conjugated goat anti rabbit secondary antibody, and nuclear staining done using Hoechst DNA dye.
    anti rabbit secondary antibody,
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Cell Culture: VeroE6 (ATCC CRL-1586)
    VeroE6
    suggested: None
    VeroE6, VeroE6+TMPRSS2, Caco-2, and Calu-3 cells were maintained in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and 1% penicillin-streptomycin.
    Calu-3
    suggested: None
    BSR-T7 cells were derived from BHC cells (42) and grown in DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS and 1% penicillin-streptomycin.
    BSR-T7
    suggested: CCLV Cat# CCLV-RIE 0583, RRID:CVCL_RW96)
    Caco-2 cells stably expressing human ACE2 were generated by transduction with third generation lentivirus pLenti7.3/V5 DEST ACE2-EmGFP (prepared by the cloning facility Dream-Lab, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; the expression of Emerald GFP is driven by the SV40 promoter.
    Caco-2
    suggested: None
    In all experiment’s cells were kept at 37oC and 5% (for Vero, Vero+TMRPSS2, and Caco-2 cells) or 7% CO2 (for Calu-3 cells) and media was pre warmed to 37°C.
    Vero
    suggested: None
    Virus titers were determined by plaque assay in VeroE6+TMPRSS2 cells.
    VeroE6+TMPRSS2
    suggested: JCRB Cat# JCRB1819, RRID:CVCL_YQ49)
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    For statistical analysis of the data in Figures 2 B, C and Figure 4 each replicate titration was fitted separately using IgorPro to determine the EC550 for each experiment.
    IgorPro
    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: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04446377RecruitingA Study of LAM-002A for the Prevention of Progression of COV…
    NCT04608266RecruitingCAMOVID : Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Camostat Mesy…
    NCT04623021CompletedA Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of CKD-314 (Nafab…
    NCT04418128Not yet recruitingClinical Efficacy of Nafamostat Mesylate for COVID-19 Pneumo…


    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


    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.