Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (Nov 2024)

The antipsychotic drug lurasidone inhibits coronaviruses by affecting multiple targets

  • Sara Baroni,
  • Tea Carletti,
  • Manuela Donalisio,
  • Irene Arduino,
  • Irene Cazzaniga,
  • Irene Cazzaniga,
  • Toni Giorgino,
  • Francesca Esposito,
  • Alessia Porta,
  • Luisa Diomede,
  • Ada De Luigi,
  • Marco Gobbi,
  • David Lembo,
  • Alessandro Marcello,
  • Enzo Tramontano,
  • Mario Milani,
  • Eloise Mastrangelo,
  • Eloise Mastrangelo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2024.1487604
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

Read online

Coronaviruses (CoVs) share key genomic elements critical for viral replication, suggesting the feasibility of developing therapeutics with efficacy across different viruses. In a previous work, we demonstrated the antiviral activity of the antipsychotic drug lurasidone against both SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43. In this study, our investigations on the mechanism of action of lurasidone suggested that the drug exhibits antiviral activity by targeting the papain-like protease (PL-Pro) of both viruses, and the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, thereby hampering both the entry and the viral replication. In vitro assays demonstrate that lurasidone significantly reduces viral load in infected cells, showing that the drug is a promising candidate for further development as a dual-action antiviral, offering a potential new strategy in the fight against COVID-19 and other coronavirus-related diseases.

Keywords