PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rana Abdelnabi
AU  - Caroline S. Foo
AU  - Suzanne J. F. Kaptein
AU  - Xin Zhang
AU  - Lana Langendries
AU  - Laura Vangeel
AU  - Valentijn Vergote
AU  - Elisabeth Heylen
AU  - Kai Dallmeier
AU  - Arnab Chatterjee
AU  - Steven De Jonghe
AU  - Birgit Weynand
AU  - Johan Neyts
TI  - Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801) inhibits SARS-CoV2 replication in Syrian hamsters model
AID  - 10.1101/2020.12.10.419242
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.12.10.419242
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/10/2020.12.10.419242.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/10/2020.12.10.419242.full
AB  - Since its emergence in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide resulting in a global pandemic with >1.5 million deaths until now. In the search for small molecule inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, drug repurposing is being extensively explored. Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801) is an orally bioavailable nucleoside analog that possesses a relatively broad-spectrum antiviral activity including against coronaviruses. We here studied the effect of EIDD-2801 in a well-established Syrian hamster SARS-CoV2 infection model. Treatment of SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters with 200 mg/kg BID of EIDD-2801 for four consecutive days, starting from the day of infection, significantly reduced infectious virus titers and viral RNA loads in the lungs and markedly improved lung histopathology. When onset of treatment was delayed until 1 or 2 days after infection, a very modest antiviral effect was observed. The potential of EIDD-2801 for the treatment and or prevention of SARS-CoV2 deserves further attention.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.