Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 545: Fluoxetine and Sertraline Potently Neutralize the Replication of Distinct SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 545: Fluoxetine and Sertraline Potently Neutralize the Replication of Distinct SARS-CoV-2 Variants Viruses doi: 10.3390/v16040545 Authors: Laura Thümmler Nadine Beckmann Carolin Sehl Matthias Soddemann Peer Braß Maren Bormann Leonie Brochhagen Carina Elsner Nicolas Hoertel Céline Cougoule Sandra Ciesek Marek Widera Ulf Dittmer Monika Lindemann Peter A. Horn Oliver Witzke Stephanie Kadow Markus Kamler Erich Gulbins Katrin Anne Becker Adalbert Krawczyk The pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is still a major health problem. Newly emerging variants and long-COVID-19 represent a challenge for the global health system. In particular, individuals in developing countries with insufficient health care need easily accessible, affordable and effective treatments of COVID-19. Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of functional inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase against infections with various viruses, including early variants of SARS-CoV-2. This work investigated whether the acid sphingomyelinase inhibitors fluoxetine and sertraline, usually used as antidepressant molecules in clinical practice, can inhibit the replication of the former and recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants in vitro. Fluoxetine and sertraline potently inhibited the infection with pseudotyped virus-like particles and SARS-CoV-2 variants D614G, alpha, delta, omicron BA.1 and omicron BA.5. These results highlight fluoxetine and sertraline as...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research