Venit Tomas, Blavier Jeremy, Maseko Sibusiso B, Shu Sam, Espada Lilia, Breunig Christopher, Holthoff Hans-Peter, Desbordes Sabrina C, Lohse Martin, Esposito Gennaro, Twizere Jean-Claude, Percipalle Piergiorgio
Division of Science and Mathematics, Biology Program, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Laboratory of Viral Interactomes, Unit of Molecular Biology of Diseases, GIGA Institute, University of Liege, Liège, Belgium.
Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2024 Aug 15;35(3):102304. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2024.102304. eCollection 2024 Sep 10.
Nanobodies are emerging as critical tools for drug design. Several have been recently created to serve as inhibitors of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus s (SARS-CoV-2) entry in the host cell by targeting surface-exposed spike protein. Here we have established a pipeline that instead targets highly conserved viral proteins made only after viral entry into the host cell when the SARS-CoV-2 RNA-based genome is translated. As proof of principle, we designed nanobodies against the SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein (Nsp)9, which is required for viral genome replication. One of these anti-Nsp9 nanobodies, 2NSP23, previously characterized using immunoassays and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for epitope mapping, was expressed and found to block SARS-CoV-2 replication specifically. We next encapsulated 2NSP23 nanobody into lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) as mRNA. We show that this nanobody, hereby referred to as LNP-mRNA-2NSP23, is internalized and translated in cells and suppresses multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, as seen by qPCR and RNA deep sequencing. These results are corroborated in three-dimensional reconstituted human epithelium kept at air-liquid interface to mimic the outer surface of lung tissue. These observations indicate that LNP-mRNA-2NSP23 is internalized and, after translation, it inhibits viral replication by targeting Nsp9 in living cells. We speculate that LNP-mRNA-2NSP23 may be translated into an innovative strategy to generate novel antiviral drugs highly efficient across coronaviruses.
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