Drug-induced phospholipidosis as an artifact in antiviral drug repurposing.

ABSTRACT: Drug repurposing in principle can speed antiviral drug discovery. Among the molecules most frequently advanced in such repurposing efforts are a group of structurally diverse cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs). While CADs have shown micromolar to mid-nanomolar antiviral activity in cell-based assays, they can induce phospholipidosis, confounding in COVID-19 repurposing. A barrier to the identification of phospholipidosis inducers has been the involved nature of the microscopy assays used to characterize them. To ease the identification of these artifacts, we describe a rapid microplate-based assay to detect phospholipidosis. Leveraging this assay, we quantified the prevalence of phospholipidosis-inducers across several cell-based antiviral repurposing screens. We selected 40 drugs reported

SUBMITTER: Glenn IS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12667853 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature