Entrectinib—A SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitor in Human Lung Tissue (HLT) Cells

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Abstract

Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, pharmaceutical companies and research groups have focused on the development of vaccines and antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2. Here, we apply a drug repurposing strategy to identify drug candidates that are able to block the entrance of the virus into human cells. By combining virtual screening with in vitro pseudovirus assays and antiviral assays in Human Lung Tissue (HLT) cells, we identify entrectinib as a potential antiviral drug.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.09.07.459123: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    On Day 3, cells were incubated with 20ul of 6x concentrations in HBSS of either the small molecules/peptides or an anti ACE2 antibody (AG-20A-0037PF-C500, Adipogen) for three hours.
    anti ACE2
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Top hits were analyzed using VMD 1.9.3 software [30]. 4.4. Plasmids & Cell lines: The Lenti X 293T cell line (632180) was purchased from Takara Bio.
    X 293T
    suggested: None
    Pseudovirus production: On Day 1, Lenti X 293T cells were seeded at a density of 60,000 cells/cm2 per T175 flask in 34ml DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS and 1mM Sodium Pyruvate.
    Lenti X 293T
    suggested: None
    Pseudovirus assay: On Day 1, 293T cells were seeded at 30,000 per well in white solid bottom 96 well plates that were either Poly L Lysine or Collagen coated in completed media (DMEM + 10% FBS + 1mM Sodium Pyruvate) at 37°C and 5% CO2.
    293T
    suggested: None
    Recombinant DNA
    SentencesResources
    pLenti CMV Puro Luc (17477), pMDLg.pRRE (12251), pRSV.
    pMDLg.pRRE
    suggested: None
    REV (12253), pMD2.G (12259) were purchased from Addgene.
    pMD2 . G
    suggested: None
    The Spike ORF was subcloned into pcDNA3.1(+) vector via Gibson Assembly (NEB).
    pcDNA3.1 ( + )
    suggested: None
    Δ Spike: 20μg pLenti Luc, 20μg pMDLg.pRRE, 9.5μg pRSV.
    pRSV
    suggested: RRID:Addgene_106453)
    Firefly Luciferase, encoded by pLenti Luc was used as the assay reporter. VSV.G, encoded by pMD2.
    pMD2
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    For this purpose, DrugBank [
    DrugBank
    suggested: (DrugBank, RRID:SCR_002700)
    22] and PubChem [23] databases were used, merging both of them in a single database in SDF format.
    PubChem
    suggested: (PubChem, RRID:SCR_004284)
    Then, different conformations for each compound were found using LigPrep software [27].
    LigPrep
    suggested: (Ligprep, RRID:SCR_016746)
    4.3 Molecular Docking: For the molecular docking, AutoDock Vina 1.1.2 software [25,26] was used.
    AutoDock
    suggested: (AutoDock, RRID:SCR_012746)
    Data was analysed on GraphPad Prism 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 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.

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


    About SciScore

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