Journal of Virus Eradication (Dec 2022)

Host-directed therapy with 2-deoxy-D-glucose inhibits human rhinoviruses, endemic coronaviruses, and SARS-CoV-2

  • Laxmikant Wali,
  • Michael Karbiener,
  • Scharon Chou,
  • Vitalii Kovtunyk,
  • Adam Adonyi,
  • Irene Gösler,
  • Ximena Contreras,
  • Delyana Stoeva,
  • Dieter Blaas,
  • Johannes Stöckl,
  • Thomas R. Kreil,
  • Guido A. Gualdoni,
  • Anna-Dorothea Gorki

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 4
p. 100305

Abstract

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Rhinoviruses (RVs) and coronaviruses (CoVs) upregulate host cell metabolic pathways such as glycolysis to meet their bioenergetic demands for rapid multiplication. Using the glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG), we assessed the dose-dependent inhibition of viral replication of minor- and major-receptor group RVs in epithelial cells. 2-DG disrupted RV infection cycle by inhibiting template negative-strand as well as genomic positive-strand RNA synthesis, resulting in less progeny virus and RV-mediated cell death. Assessment of 2-DG's intracellular kinetics revealed that after a short-exposure to 2-DG, the active intermediate, 2-DG6P, is stored intracellularly for several hours. Finally, we confirmed the antiviral effect of 2-DG on pandemic SARS-CoV-2 and showed for the first time that it also reduces replication of endemic human coronaviruses. These results provide further evidence that 2-DG could be used as a broad-spectrum antiviral.

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