Fluvastatin mitigates SARS-CoV-2 infection in human lung cells
Francisco J. Zapatero‐Belinchón, Rebecca Moeller, Lisa Laßwitz, Marco van Ham, Miriam Becker, Graham Brogden, Ebba Rosendal, Wenjie Bi, Belén Carriquí-Madroñal, Koushikul Islam, Annasara Lenman, Antonia P. Gunesch, Jared Kirui, Thomas Pietschmann, Anna K. Överby, Lothar Jänsch, Gisa Gerold
Abstract
in a dose-dependent manner. Quantitative proteomics revealed that fluvastatin and other tested statins modulated the cholesterol synthesis pathway without altering innate antiviral immune responses in infected lung epithelial cells. However, fluvastatin treatment specifically downregulated proteins that modulate protein translation and viral replication. Collectively, these results support the notion that statin therapy poses no additional risk to individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and that fluvastatin has a moderate beneficial effect on SARS-CoV-2 infection of human lung cells.