Putative COVID-19 therapies imatinib, lopinavir, ritonavir, and ivermectin cause hair cell damage: A targeted screen in the zebrafish lateral line.

ABSTRACT: The biomedical community is rapidly developing COVID-19 drugs to bring much-need therapies to market, with over 900 drugs and drug combinations currently in clinical trials. While this pace of drug development is necessary, the risk of producing therapies with significant side-effects is also increased. One likely side-effect of some COVID-19 drugs is hearing loss, yet hearing is not assessed during preclinical development or clinical trials. We used the zebrafish lateral line, an established model for drug-induced sensory hair cell damage, to assess the ototoxic potential of seven drugs in clinical trials for treatment of COVID-19. We found that ivermectin, lopinavir, imatinib, and ritonavir were significantly toxic to lateral line hair cells. By contrast, the approved COVID-19 therapies

SUBMITTER: Coffin AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9448854 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature