Potential in-vitro antiviral activity of MV1035 on SARS-CoV-2 wild type viruses

Introduction Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a positive-sense, single stranded RNA virus, and is responsible for the pandemic outbreak called COVID-19. The pandemic, still ongoing, had presented unprecedented challenges in terms of finding appropriate pharmacological treatments. Methods Starting from the recent literature that demonstrates how ALKBH5 inhibitors could be used as a new strategy to reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication, we decided to repurpose our newly discovered ALKBH5 inhibitor MV1035, previously tested and proved effective against glioblastoma, for its putative antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. We demonstrated a reduction in SARS-CoV-2-induced CPE after 72 h incubation using MV1035 (50 µM), for SARS-CoV-2 wild type (Wuhan strain) and South African variant. Results and conclusion The results show how MV1035 seems to be able to reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication through an indirect mechanism of action, which might involve an interaction with the host cell rather than with a virus protein.