Submitted:
15 April 2020
Posted:
21 April 2020
You are already at the latest version
Preprints on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2
Abstract
Mycophenolate mofetil was reported to have broad in vitro activity against different viruses and had been tried in combination with IFN-β in treating MERS infection. We tested the pharmacological activity of mycophenolate mofetil using SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero cells. The half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) of mycophenolate mofetil against SARS-CoV-2 was 0.47 μM while that of remdesivir was 0.77 μM. Molecular docking results of mycophenolate mofetil to potential target proteins of COVID-19 suggested that mycophenolate mofetil might inhibit SARS-CoV-2 mainly by interacting with DHODH and IMPDH2. Furthermore, mycophenolate mofetil as an immunosuppressant may be a good therapeutic option for the management of hyperinflammation in patients with severe COVID-19. Based on its high potency against SARS-CoV-2 in Vero E6 cells, its good pharmacokinetics and clinical safety profile, mycophenolate mofetil deserves further exploration as potential treatment for COVID-19.
Keywords:
mycophenolate mofetil
; SARS-CoV-2
; DHODH
; IMPDH2
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.