Cyclophilin A and CD147: novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of COVID-19

Medicine in Drug Discovery

Albrecht von Brunn¹  Chenglong Liu²  Di Zhu² 

[1] Max-von-Pettenkofer Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and German Center for Infection Research, (DZIF), partner site Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany;School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 201203;

关键词: cyclophilin A;    cyclosporine A;    COVID-19;    SARS-CoV2;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) occurred in December 2019, and spread rapidly throughout the world. There have been other severe coronavirus outbreaks worldwide, namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV). Because the genetic diversity of coronaviruses renders the design of vaccines complicated, broad spectrum-anti-coronavirus drugs have become a critical approach to control the coronavirus epidemic. Cyclophilin A is an important protein needed for coronavirus replication, and its inhibitor cyclosporine A has the ability to suppress coronavirus on a broad spectrum. CD147-S protein was found to be one route by which SARS-CoV-2 invades host cells, while CD147 was found to play a functional role in facilitating the infection of host cells by SARS-CoV. The CyPA/CD147 interaction may play a critical role in the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter the host cells. However, cyclosporine A has immunosuppressive effects, so the conditions for its use as an antiviral drug are limited. As a result, cyclosporine A analogues without immunosuppressive side effects have attracted lots of interest. This review primarily discusses the drug development prospects of cyclophilin A as a therapeutic target for the treatment of coronavirus infection, especially coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and non-immunosuppressive cyclosporine analogues.

【 授权许可】

Unknown