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    A Highly Potent SARS-CoV-2 Blocking Lectin Protein

    Year: 2022

    Journal: ACS Infect. Dis., Volume 8, JUL 8, page 1253–1264

    Authors: Ahan, Recep E.; Hanifehnezhad, Alireza; Kehribar, Ebru S.; Oguzoglu, Tuba C.; Foldes, Katalin; Ozcelik, Cemile E.; Filazi, Nazlican; Oztop, Sidika; Palaz, Fahreddin; Onder, Sevgen; Bozkurt, Eray U.; Ergunay, Koray; Ozkul, Aykut; Seker, Urartu Ozgur Safak

    Organizations: TUBITAK COVID Platform (TUBITAK) [T1004 -18AG020]; Ministry of Industry and Technology of Turkey

    The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease-19) pandemic affected more than 180 million people around the globe, causing more than five million deaths as of January 2022. SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the new coronavirus, has been identified as the primary cause of the infection. The number of vaccinated people is increasing; however, prophylactic drugs are highly demanded to ensure secure social contact. A number of drug molecules have been repurposed to fight against SARS-CoV-2, and some of them have been proven to be effective in preventing hospitalization or ICU admissions. Here, we demonstrated griffithsin (GRFT), a lectin protein, to block the entry of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, Delta and Omicron, into the Vero E6 cell lines and IFNAR(-/-) mouse models by attaching to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Given the current mutation frequency of SARS-CoV-2, we believe that GRFT protein-based drugs will have a high impact in preventing the transmission of both the Wuhan strain as well as any other emerging variants, including Delta and Omicron variants, causing the high-speed spread of COVID-19.
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