A traditional medicine, respiratory detox shot (RDS), inhibits the infection of SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and the influenza A virus in vitro

  1. Brian Hetrick
  2. Dongyang Yu
  3. Adeyemi A. Olanrewaju
  4. Linda D. Chilin
  5. Sijia He
  6. Deemah Dabbagh
  7. Ghaliah Alluhaibi
  8. Yuan-Chun Ma
  9. Lewis A. Hofmann
  10. Ramin M. Hakami
  11. Yuntao Wu

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Abstract

Background

The ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in the infection of over 128 million people and has caused over 2.8 million deaths as of April 2021 in more than 220 countries and territories. Currently, there is no effective treatment for COVID-19 to reduce mortality. We investigated the potential anti-coronavirus activities from an oral liquid of traditional medicine, Respiratory Detox Shot (RDS), which contains mostly herbal ingredients traditionally used to manage lung diseases.

Results

Here we report that RDS inhibited the infection of target cells by lenti-SARS-CoV, lenti-SARS-CoV-2, and hybrid alphavirus-SARS-CoV-2 (Ha-CoV-2) pseudoviruses, and by infectious SARS-CoV-2 and derived Ha-CoV-2 variants including B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.429, B.1.2, B.1.494, B.1.1.207, B.1.258, and B.1.1.298. We further demonstrated that RDS directly inactivates the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. In addition, we found that RDS can also block the infection of target cells by Influenza A virus.

Conclusions

These results suggest that RDS may broadly inhibit the infection of respiratory viruses.

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  1. Version published to 10.1186/s13578-021-00609-1
  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.12.10.420489v2 on bioRxiv
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.10.420489: (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

    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Cells and cell culture: HEK293T (ATCC, Manassas, VA), MDCK (ATCC, Manassas, VA), Vero E6 (ATCC, Manassas, VA), and A549(ACE2) (a gift from Virongy, Manassas, VA) were maintained in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) (Thermo Fisher Scientific) containing 10% heat-inactivated FBS and 1x penicillin-streptomycin (Thermo Fisher
    A549
    suggested: None
    Briefly, for the production of GFP reporter lentiviral pseudovirus, HEK293T cells were cotransfected with the vector expressing the SARS-CoV S protein or the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, pCMVΔR8.2, and pLKO.
    HEK293T
    suggested: NCBI_Iran Cat# C498, RRID:CVCL_0063)
    Virus was harvested from the supernatant and the vial titers were determined by plaque assay in Vero cell monolayers grown in 12-well plates.
    Vero
    suggested: None
    Two hundred microliters of each dilution were then adsorbed onto triplicate wells of Vero E6 cell monolayers for 1 hour.
    Vero E6
    suggested: RRID:CVCL_XD71)
    Drug toxicity on MDCK cells was quantified using Cell Proliferation Kit I (MTT) (Sigma) and the protocol suggested by the manufacturer.
    MDCK
    suggested: CLS Cat# 602280/p823_MDCK_(NBL-2, RRID:CVCL_0422)
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    GFP expression was quantified by flow cytometer (FACSCalibur, BD Biosciences)
    FACSCalibur
    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

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  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.12.10.420489v1 on bioRxiv