Ran Yan, Chen Zinuo, Sacramento Carolina Q, Fan Lingyuan, Cui Qinghua, Rong Lijun, Du Ruikun
Qingdao Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Qingdao 266122, China.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Virol Sin. 2025 Jun;40(3):430-438. doi: 10.1016/j.virs.2025.04.004. Epub 2025 Apr 12.
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and drug-resistant mutants emphasizes the urgent need to develop novel antiviral agents. In the present study, we examined the therapeutic effect of the Chinese medicinal herb, Scutellaria barbata D. Don (SBD), against SARS-CoV-2 infection both in vitro and in vivo. Using a viral replicon particle (VRP)-based mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, our study revealed that SBD extracts can reduce viral load in mouse lungs and alleviate the viral induced pneumonia. In vitro antiviral determination further validated the direct acting antiviral efficacy of SBD extracts against SARS-CoV-2 replication. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that SBD can act against SARS-CoV-2 replication by targeting both 3-chymotrypsin-like and papain-like cysteine proteases, via a combination of multiple active constituents. Moreover, SBD can modulate the host inflammation response in a bi-directional manner, which also contribute to the mitigation of viral induced acute lung injury. In summary, our study provides SBD as a promising therapeutic agent to combat SARS-CoV-2 infections that merit further development.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）变体和耐药突变体的出现凸显了开发新型抗病毒药物的迫切需求。在本研究中，我们考察了中草药半枝莲（Scutellaria barbata D. Don，SBD）在体外和体内对SARS-CoV-2感染的治疗效果。利用基于病毒复制子颗粒（VRP）的SARS-CoV-2感染小鼠模型，我们的研究表明，SBD提取物可降低小鼠肺部的病毒载量，并减轻病毒诱导的肺炎。体外抗病毒测定进一步验证了SBD提取物对SARS-CoV-2复制的直接抗病毒效力。机制研究表明，SBD可通过多种活性成分的组合，靶向3-糜蛋白酶样和木瓜蛋白酶样半胱氨酸蛋白酶，从而对抗SARS-CoV-2复制。此外，SBD可双向调节宿主炎症反应，这也有助于减轻病毒诱导的急性肺损伤。总之，我们的研究表明SBD是一种有前景的抗SARS-CoV-2感染治疗药物，值得进一步开发。
