In Vitro Evaluation of the Activity of Terpenes and Cannabidiol against Human Coronavirus E229
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Abstract
The activity of a new, terpene-based formulation, code-named NT-VRL-1, against Human Coronavirus (HCoV) strain 229E was evaluated in human lung fibroblasts (MRC-5 cells), with and without the addition of cannabidiol (CBD). The main constituents in the terpene formulation used for the experiment were beta caryophyllene, eucalyptol, and citral. The tested formulation exhibited an antiviral effect when it was pre-incubated with the host cells prior to virus infection. The combination of NT-VRL-1 with CBD potentiated the antiviral effect better than the positive controls pyrazofurin and glycyrrhizin. There was a strong correlation between the quantitative results from a cell-viability assay and the cytopathic effect seen under the microscope after 72 h. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of activity of a combination of terpenes and CBD against a coronavirus.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.01.433501: (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
Experimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources Cytotoxicity of compounds: MRC-5 cells were plated at 1 × 104 cells/well in 96-well plates in minimum essential medium Eagle (EMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum and then incubated at 37°C with 5% CO2. MRC-5suggested: NoneResults 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: We detected …SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.01.433501: (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
Experimental Models: Cell Lines Sentences Resources Cytotoxicity of compounds: MRC-5 cells were plated at 1 × 104 cells/well in 96-well plates in minimum essential medium Eagle (EMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum and then incubated at 37°C with 5% CO2. MRC-5suggested: NoneResults 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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Several population groups, such as the youngest age groups and people with health limitations, will take longer to vaccinate. Therefore, a preventative antiviral treatment to be used in conjunction with vaccines or even temporarily until vaccination or other alternatives become available would be valuable. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-viral activity of the NT-VRL-1 terpene formulation, with and without CBD, against human HCoV-229E in human lung fibroblasts in vitro. In this study, we report the antiviral activity of the NT-VRL-1 terpene formulation and show that that activity was enhanced when it was applied together with CBD, suggesting either a synergetic or additive effect between the terpene formulation and CBD. Several studies have suggested that phytochemicals found in cannabis may be useful as potential anti-inflammatory agents (22, 23). Such activity may be particularly useful for controlling the cytokine storm syndrome and acute respiratory distress syndrome associated with COVID-19. This study is the first to test cannabis phytochemicals for use against a coronavirus. Pyrazofurin, a natural antiviral compound that has been shown to be effective against SARS-associated coronaviruses (17), was used as positive control. Glycyrrhizin, which has been shown to have antiviral effect against SARS-associated coronaviruses (24), served as the second positive control. The mode of antiviral action of NT-VRL-1 was determined by the addition of the compoun...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
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:- No conflict of interest statement was detected. If there are no conflicts, we encourage authors to explicit state so.
- No funding statement was detected.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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