PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Xiaoquan Li
AU  - Peter Lidsky
AU  - Yinghong Xiao
AU  - Chien-Ting Wu
AU  - Miguel Garcia-Knight
AU  - Junjiao Yang
AU  - Tsuguhisa Nakayama
AU  - Jayakar V. Nayak
AU  - Peter K. Jackson
AU  - Raul Andino
AU  - Xiaokun Shu
TI  - Ethacridine inhibits SARS-CoV-2 by inactivating viral particles in cellular models
AID  - 10.1101/2020.10.28.359042
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.10.28.359042
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/02/2020.10.28.359042.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/02/2020.10.28.359042.full
AB  - SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, which is now the third-leading cause of death in the United States. The FDA has recently approved remdesivir, an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 replication, to treat COVID-19, though recent data from the WHO shows little to no benefit with use of this anti-viral agent. Here we report the discovery of ethacridine, a safe antiseptic use in humans, as a potent drug for use against SARS-CoV-2 (EC50 ~ 0.08 μM). Ethacridine was identified via high-throughput screening of an FDA-approved drug library in living cells using a fluorescent assay. Interestingly, the main mode of action of ethacridine is through inactivation of viral particles, preventing their binding to the host cells. Indeed, ethacridine is effective in various cell types, including primary human nasal epithelial cells. Taken together, these data identify a promising, potent, and new use of the old drug possessing a distinct mode of action for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2.Competing Interest StatementWe have filed a patent on a new use of the identified compounds.