Novel antiviral activity of PAD inhibitors against human beta-coronaviruses HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2.

ABSTRACT: The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, along with the likelihood that new coronavirus strains will appear in the nearby future, highlights the urgent need to develop new effective antiviral agents. In this scenario, emerging host-targeting antivirals (HTAs), which act on host-cell factors essential for viral replication, are a promising class of antiviral compounds. Here we show that a new class of HTAs targeting peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs), a family of calcium-dependent enzymes catalyzing protein citrullination, is endowed with a potent inhibitory activity against human beta-coronaviruses (HCoVs). Specifically, we show that infection of human fetal lung fibroblasts with HCoV-OC43 leads to enhanced protein citrullination through transcriptional activation of PAD4, and that inhibition of P

SUBMITTER: Pasquero S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8915624 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature