PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Killian Rodriguez AU - Rigaill Josselin AU - Estelle Audoux AU - Florian Saunier AU - Elisabeth Botelho-Nevers AU - Amélie Prier AU - Yann Dickerscheit AU - Sylvie Pillet AU - Bruno Pozzetto AU - Thomas Bourlet AU - Paul O. Verhoeven TI - Evaluation of <em>in vitro</em> activity of copper gluconate against SARS-CoV-2 using confocal microscopy-based high content screening AID - 10.1101/2020.12.13.422548 DP - 2020 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2020.12.13.422548 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/13/2020.12.13.422548.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/13/2020.12.13.422548.full AB - Context Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged late in 2019 is the etiologic agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). There is an urgent need to develop curative and preventive therapeutics to limit the current pandemic and to prevent the re-emergence of Covid-19. This study aimed to assess the in vitro activity of copper gluconate against SRAS-CoV-2.Methods Vero E6 cells were treated with copper gluconate 18 hours before infection. Cells were infected with a recombinant GFP expressing SARS-CoV-2. Infected cells were maintained in fresh medium containing copper gluconate for an additional 48-hour period. The infection level was measured by the confocal microscopy-based high content screening method. The cell viability in presence of copper gluconate was assessed by XTT assay.Results The viability of Vero E6 cells treated with copper gluconate up to 200 μM was found to be similar to that of untreated cells, but it dropped below 40% with 400 μM of this agent. The infection rate was 23.8%, 18.9%, 20.6%, 6.9%, 5.3%,5.2% in cells treated with 0, 2, 10, 25, 50 and 100 μM of copper gluconate respectively. As compared to untreated cells, the number of infected cells was reduced by 71%, 77%, and 78% with 25, 50, and 100 μM of copper gluconate respectively (p &lt; 0.05).Conclusion Copper gluconate was found to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 infection in Vero E6 cells. Furthers studies are needed to determine whether copper homeostasis could play a role in SARS-CoV-2 infection.Competing Interest StatementThis research was funded by the University Jean Monnet of St-Etienne (emergency financing for a microscope), the University Hospital of St-Etienne (donation from the St-Etienne football club) and EA Pharma company. This latter company had no role in the study. Conflict of interest: none to declare.