Repurposing Fragile X Drugs to Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Viral Reproduction

Cara J Westmark; Maki Kiso; Peter Halfmann; Pamela R Westmark; Yoshihiro Kawaoka

doi:10.3389/fcell.2020.00856

Repurposing Fragile X Drugs to Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Viral Reproduction

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020 Aug 26:8:856. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.00856. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Cara J Westmark¹, Maki Kiso², Peter Halfmann³, Pamela R Westmark¹, Yoshihiro Kawaoka^{2

3

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
² Division of Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Influenza Research Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
⁴ Department of Special Pathogens, International Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis that requires the application of interdisciplinary research to address numerous knowledge gaps including molecular strategies to prevent viral reproduction in affected individuals. In response to the Frontiers Research Topic, "Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Pathophysiology, Epidemiology, Clinical Management, and Public Health Response," this Hypothesis article proposes a novel therapeutic strategy to repurpose metabotropic glutamate 5 receptor (mGluR₅) inhibitors to interfere with viral hijacking of the host protein synthesis machinery. We review pertinent background on SARS-CoV-2, fragile X syndrome (FXS) and metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR₅) and provide a mechanistic-based hypothesis and preliminary data to support testing mGluR₅ inhibitors in COVID-19 research.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; fragile X mental retardation protein; metabotropic glutamate receptor 5; protein synthesis.

Abstract

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