The Integrin Binding Peptide, ATN-161, as a Novel Therapy for SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Brandon J. Beddingfield, Naoki Iwanaga, Prem P. Chapagain, Wenshu Zheng, Chad J. Roy, Ye Hu, Jay K. Kolls, Gregory Bix
Abstract
Many efforts to design and screen therapeutics for the current severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic have focused on inhibiting viral host cell entry by disrupting angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) binding with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This work focuses on the potential to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 entry through a hypothesized α5β1 integrin-based mechanism and indicates that inhibiting the spike protein interaction with α5β1 integrin (+/- ACE2) and the interaction between α5β1 integrin and ACE2 using a novel molecule (ATN-161) represents a promising approach to treat coronavirus disease-19.