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 < 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.
Evaluation of in vitro activity of copper gluconate against SARS-CoV-2 using confocal microscopy-based high content screening
