Casseb, S.M.M.; Khayat, A.S.; de Souza, J.E.S.; de Oliveira, E.H.C.; Dos Santos, S.E.B.; da Costa Vasconcelos, P.F.; de Assumpção, P.P. Anticipating the Next Chess Move: Blocking SARS-CoV-2 Replication and Simultaneously Disarming Viral Escape Mechanisms. Genes 2022, 13, 2147. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13112147
Casseb, S.M.M.; Khayat, A.S.; de Souza, J.E.S.; de Oliveira, E.H.C.; Dos Santos, S.E.B.; da Costa Vasconcelos, P.F.; de Assumpção, P.P. Anticipating the Next Chess Move: Blocking SARS-CoV-2 Replication and Simultaneously Disarming Viral Escape Mechanisms. Genes 2022, 13, 2147. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13112147
Casseb, S.M.M.; Khayat, A.S.; de Souza, J.E.S.; de Oliveira, E.H.C.; Dos Santos, S.E.B.; da Costa Vasconcelos, P.F.; de Assumpção, P.P. Anticipating the Next Chess Move: Blocking SARS-CoV-2 Replication and Simultaneously Disarming Viral Escape Mechanisms. Genes 2022, 13, 2147. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13112147
Casseb, S.M.M.; Khayat, A.S.; de Souza, J.E.S.; de Oliveira, E.H.C.; Dos Santos, S.E.B.; da Costa Vasconcelos, P.F.; de Assumpção, P.P. Anticipating the Next Chess Move: Blocking SARS-CoV-2 Replication and Simultaneously Disarming Viral Escape Mechanisms. Genes 2022, 13, 2147. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13112147
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic initiated a race to determine the best measures to control the disease and to save as many people as possible. Efforts to implement social distancing, the use of masks, and massive vaccination programs turned out to be essential in reducing the devastating effects of the pandemic. Nevertheless, the high mutation rates of SARS-CoV-2 challenge the vaccination strategy and maintain the threat of new outbreaks due to the risk of infection surges and even lethal variations able to resist the effects of vaccines and upset the balance. Most of the new therapies tested against SARS-CoV-2 came from already available formulations developed to treat other diseases, so they were not specifically developed for SARS-CoV-2. In parallel, the knowledge produced regarding the molecular mechanisms involved in this disease was vast due to massive efforts worldwide. Taking advantage of such a vast molecular understanding of virus genomes and disease mechanisms, a targeted molecular therapy based on siRNA specifically developed to reach exclusive SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences was tested in a non-transformed human cell model. Since coronavirus can escape from siRNA by producing siRNA inhibitors, a complex strategy to simultaneously strike both the viral infectious mechanism and the capability of evading siRNA therapy was developed. The combined administration of the chosen produced siRNA proved to be highly effective in successfully reducing viral load and keeping virus replication under control, even after many days of treatment, unlike the combinations of siRNAs lacking this anti-anti-siRNA capability. Additionally, the developed therapy did not harm the normal cells, which was demonstrated because, instead of testing the siRNA in nonhuman cells or in transformed human cells, a non-transformed human thyroid cell was specifically chosen for the experiment. The proposed siRNA combination deeply reduced the viral load throughout the experiment and allowed cellular recovery, thus representing a potential innovation, to be considered as an additional weapon for therapy of COVID-19 and even other infectious diseases.
Keywords
COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; siRNA; Treatment
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Virology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
,
