Efficacy of ion-channel inhibitors amantadine, memantine and rimantadine for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro

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Abstract

We report the in vitro efficacy of ion-channel inhibitors amantadine, memantine and rimantadine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In VeroE6 cells, rimantadine was most potent followed by memantine and amantadine (50% effective concentrations: 36, 80 and 116 μM, respectively). Rimantadine also showed the highest selectivity index, followed by amantadine and memantine (17.3, 12.2 and 7.6, respectively). Similar results were observed in human hepatoma Huh7.5 and lung carcinoma A549-hACE2 cells. Inhibitors interacted in a similar antagonistic manner with remdesivir and had a similar barrier to viral escape. Rimantadine acted mainly at the viral post-entry level and partially at the viral entry level. Based on these results, rimantadine showed the most promise for treatment of SARS-CoV-2.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2082
JournalViruses
Volume13
Issue number10
ISSN1999-4915
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Adamantane
  • Antiviral
  • Barrier to escape
  • Combination treatment
  • COVID-19
  • Drug repurposing
  • Hepatitis C virus p7 inhibitor
  • Ion-channel inhibitor
  • Remdesivir
  • SARS-CoV-2

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