CN114748458A

CN114748458A - Application of propranolol in resisting coronavirus infection

Info

Publication number: CN114748458A
Application number: CN202210443820.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 高银华; 王一
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2022-04-26
Filing date: 2022-04-26
Publication date: 2022-07-15

Abstract

The invention discloses an application of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing a medicament for preventing or treating coronavirus infection. The research of the invention shows that propranolol can effectively inhibit or degrade virus replication organelles and inhibit virus replication, has definite and obvious prevention and resistance effects on coronavirus including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and can relieve various diseases caused by sequela of new coronavirus. Meanwhile, the invention also discloses the application of the propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing medicaments for preventing or treating coronavirus infection in combination with other anti-new-coronavirus medicaments, including approved medicaments for marketing or clinical anti-new-coronavirus medicaments. The low dose after combined use can significantly reduce viral load. The method has great application and popularization significance for the treatment, prevention and control of the current novel coronavirus COVID-19.

Description

Application of propranolol in resisting coronavirus infection

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of biological medicines. More particularly, relates to propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, and application thereof in resisting coronavirus infection, in particular to application thereof in resisting novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Background

Coronaviruses are a class of enveloped single positive-stranded RNA viruses that can be widely found in humans and other mammals as well as birds and cause respiratory, digestive, hepatic, and nervous system type diseases. Since 12 months in 2019, a series of cases of pneumonia with unknown reasons appear, the clinical manifestations are very similar to those of viral pneumonia, scientists show that a novel coronavirus exists through deep sequencing analysis, the WHO is tentatively named as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), then the International Committee for viral classification (ICTV) announces that the formal classification of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is named as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2), the World Health Organization (WHO) also announces that the formal name of a disease caused by the virus is COVID-19.

The source and pathogenesis of the novel coronavirus pneumonia are not clear. Although the FDA has now made urgent approval for drugs for treating new corona, such as girlidide (Remdesivir), Molnupiravir (Molnupiravir) and pyroxene (paxlovid), these drugs are expensive and have limited effects, and cannot effectively prevent the spread of new corona virus. Meanwhile, sequelae brought by healing of The new crown are not ignored, The world medical authoritative magazine, The Lancet has been published, and long-term symptoms of The new crown (new crown sequelae) or The first challenge of modern medicine are presented. It has been found that the sequelae which may occur following infection with the new coronavirus are diabetes, cerebral atrophy, male dysfunction, dry eye, cardiovascular disease, dysosmia, and mental illness.

At present, no specific medicine for the virus exists in China, and the clinical application mainly aims at symptomatic support treatment. Dozens of clinical experimental researches related to a plurality of new uses of old medicines are started by the national clinical experimental registration center, but most of the clinical experimental researches are unknown in action mechanism, so that the clinical medicines capable of effectively preventing and treating the novel coronavirus infection are not slow in research.

Propranolol is a cardiovascular and cerebrovascular medicine widely used in the global scope, is commonly called as 'safe heart', is widely applied to the treatment of diseases such as hypertension, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, congestive heart failure and hyperthyroidism, has good safety, is also suitable for paediatric medicines, and is listed in the basic medicine catalog in China. At present, the information on whether propranolol can act on SARS-CoV-2 is still lacking. In the invention, the propranolol can effectively degrade virus replication organelle and block the replication of coronavirus. Only a fundamentally broad spectrum of blockade of coronavirus replication is a real hope to eliminate diseases such as diabetes, brain atrophy, male dysfunction, dry eye, cardiovascular disease, olfactory-taste failure, and psychiatric disease caused by the sequelae of new coronaviruses.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the defects in the prior art, the invention aims to solve the technical problem of overcoming the defects of the existing anti-coronavirus infection medicines, in particular to anti-SARS-CoV-2 infection medicines, and aims to explore the medicines capable of preventing and treating coronavirus infection such as SARS-CoV-2 and the like aiming at the urgency of the current epidemic situation.

The invention aims to provide a new application of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in the technical field of biological medicines, and particularly relates to an application of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparation of a medicine for preventing or treating coronavirus infection.

Preferably, the medicament for preventing or treating coronavirus infection is a medicament for preventing or treating novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV or middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus MERS-CoV infection, namely the coronavirus is SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV.

The propranolol derivative is preferably O-acetyl propranolol or O-benzoyl propranolol.

The pharmaceutically acceptable salt of propranolol is preferably propranolol hydrochloride.

The results of scientific studies published in 2020 suggest that coronaviruses replicate their large genomes in the cytoplasm of host cells, supported by the complex virus-induced transforming Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) membrane, known as the virus-Replicating Organelle (RO), meaning that the virus-replicating organelle is the "cellular weapon" of the virus, and if capable of preventing or degrading it, is effective in preventing coronavirus replication.

The research of the invention finds that propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof have the function of effectively inhibiting or degrading virus replication organelles, and the replication of coronavirus can be prevented through the function, so that the coronavirus is inhibited from entering host cells, and the effect of preventing or treating coronavirus infection is achieved.

The antiviral action mechanism of the propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof does not directly kill viruses, but inhibits or degrades virus replication organelles, so that the viruses lose replication bases, and therefore, the propranolol has good broad spectrum. The invention mainly takes the prevention or treatment of coronavirus infection as an example, and particularly can prevent and treat the infection of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV or middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus MERS-CoV.

The invention also aims to provide an application of the propranolol combination drug in preparing drugs for preventing or treating coronavirus infection, in particular to an application of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing drugs for preventing or treating coronavirus infection in combination with other anti-new coronavirus drugs.

Propranolol inhibits or degrades the function of virus replication organelle, so that the propranolol has unique advantages in drug combination. The synergistic effect is good for anti-new coronavirus medicines with other action mechanisms, such as RdRp inhibitor, 3CLp inhibitor or RA antagonist. Preferably, the RdRp inhibitor is Remdesivir or Molnopiravir, the 3CLp inhibitor is Paxloivid or Ensittrelvir, and the RA antagonist is pramine.

The propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are combined with other anti-new coronavirus medicines, and the propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are applied to the preparation of the medicines for preventing or treating coronavirus infection. The two medicines have complementary action on the action mechanism of resisting the new coronavirus infection, and can realize the excellent effect of inhibiting viruses at low concentration, wherein the concentration of propranolol is 1-100 mu M, and the concentration of other medicines for resisting the new coronavirus is 1-100 mu M.

The invention proves that propranolol has new application besides being used as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular medicines, in particular to the application of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing medicines for preventing or treating coronavirus infection, especially the application in medicines for preventing or treating novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV or middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus MERS-CoV infection. Propranolol has been widely used clinically, the safety, the drug metabolism characteristic and the toxic and side effects of propranolol are clear, and the marketed dosage forms comprise tablets, capsules and oral solutions. Safe and effective 'new use of old medicine' can greatly shorten the approval time, and has important application value for clinically preventing or treating novel coronavirus infection.

As the drug for preventing or treating the novel coronavirus infection according to the present invention, tablets, capsules, drops, sprays, powders, inhalation preparations, aerosols or nasal preparations containing propranolol and derivatives thereof or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof may be mentioned. As SARS-CoV-2 is characterized by pneumonia, respiratory tract diseases, etc., inhalation preparations, aerosol, etc. have better effect than oral preparations.

The above purpose of the invention is realized by the following technical scheme:

as a highly pathogenic virus, a neutralizing antibody experiment, a plaque titration experiment and the like of a novel coronavirus need to be carried out in a biosafety third-level (BSL-3) laboratory, so the technical scheme firstly constructs a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, and the pseudovirus does not have infectivity after infecting a susceptible host cell for one time due to the lack of a complete replication mechanism and can be carried out in the biosafety second-level (BSL-2) laboratory. The wild SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus S protein plasmid is used to transfect 293T cell by enzyme digestion and transfection reagent VigoFect, etc. to package pseudovirus capable of expressing envelope spike protein of new type coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), and these pseudoviruses are used to infect 293T cell, so that it simulates a state of new type coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infecting host cell. The study required by the present invention was then carried out using a model of such pseudovirus infected cells. The bioactivity evaluation work was entrusted to a third party laboratory with BSL-2.

Through a large amount of research, screening and research, the inventor finally finds an old medicine propranolol which can effectively inhibit 293T cells infected by novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Further research shows that propranolol and its derivative or its pharmaceutically acceptable salt have similar effect of inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection. The inventor further explores the antiviral broad-spectrum property of propranolol, and experimental results show that propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof have broad-spectrum antiviral effect on coronavirus.

Combining the report of the literature and the research result, the inventor finds that propranolol has the function of effectively inhibiting or degrading the virus replication organelle, and the replication of coronavirus can be prevented through the function, so that the coronavirus is inhibited from entering a host cell, and the effect of preventing or treating coronavirus infection is achieved. It is due to this inhibition or degradation of the viral replication organelle function that reasonably explains the good broad spectrum anti-coronavirus effect of propranolol drugs. Further, only if this broad spectrum fundamentally blocks the replication of coronaviruses, there is a real hope of eliminating diseases such as diabetes, brain atrophy, male dysfunction, dry eye, cardiovascular diseases, olfactory-taste failure, and mental diseases caused by the sequelae of new coronaviruses.

The combination effect of the propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof with other anti-new coronavirus medicines further proves the beneficial effect of the invention, namely that the propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof can effectively prevent or recover cells infected by coronavirus by combining with other anti-new coronavirus medicines.

The propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are prepared into a certain concentration, and other drugs which are approved to be on the market or enter the clinic and are used for resisting the new coronavirus, such as an RdRp inhibitor Remdesivir or Molnnapiravir, a 3CLp inhibitor Paxlovid or Ensittrelvir, or an RA antagonist prochloraz, are prepared into a certain concentration and sequentially act on the pseudovirus packaged cell screening model. The results show that the combined use of low doses of propranolol with any of the above drugs against the new corona virus can reduce the viral load to at least 1/1000.

In conclusion, the invention has the following beneficial effects:

the invention discloses an application of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing a medicament for preventing or treating coronavirus infection. The research of the invention shows that propranolol can effectively inhibit or degrade virus replication organelles, inhibit virus replication, show an inhibiting effect on envelope spike protein of coronavirus, has definite and obvious effects of preventing and resisting virus infection on coronavirus including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, especially on novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, can relieve various diseases caused by sequela of the novel coronavirus to the maximum extent, and provides a novel medicine selection for preventing and controlling the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the invention also discloses the application of propranolol and derivatives thereof or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing medicaments for preventing or treating coronavirus infection by combining with other anti-new coronavirus medicaments, including medicaments which are approved to be on the market or enter clinic for resisting new coronavirus, such as RdRp inhibitor Remdesivir or Molnuravir, 3CLp inhibitor Paxlovid or Ensittrelvir, or RA antagonist procurdenim and the like. The combined use of low doses significantly reduces viral load. The method has great application and popularization significance for the prevention and control of coronavirus, in particular for the treatment and prevention and control of the epidemic situation of pneumonia of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a graph showing typical comparative results obtained in example 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the results of a typical coupling comparison obtained in example 2 of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions of the present invention will be further specifically described below with reference to specific examples and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

Example 1

(1) 293T cells were seeded in 6-well plates at 37 ℃ in 5% CO₂The cell culture box is used for overnight culture, and transfection is started after the cell density reaches 70-90%. The SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus S protein plasmid was transfected into 293T cells using Lipofectamine 3000 reagent. 48h after transfection, cells were harvested as described in the relevant literatureThe method detects the expression of spike protein by Western blot and flow cytometry respectively.

(2) Preparing a solution of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, wherein the storage concentration of the solution is 1-100 mu M and the solution is used as a test solution.

(3) And (2) respectively acting cell culture media containing the prepared test solution on the 293T cells before and after the cells are transfected in the step (1), continuously culturing the cells for 24-72 h, collecting cell supernatants of an experimental group and a control group, simultaneously cracking the cells, respectively extracting RNA (ribonucleic acid) in the cell supernatants and the cell lysates, and detecting the virus expression amounts in the cell supernatants and the cell lysates by adopting qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction).

The results show that propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof can obviously reduce the virus load before/after acting on 293T cells before/after transfection, have better effect before transfection, and prove that the propranolol interferes virus replication organelles so as to inhibit a virus replication mechanism. Some typical comparison results are shown in FIG. 1.

Example 2

(1) 293T cells were seeded in 6-well plates at 37 ℃ in 5% CO₂The cell culture box is used for overnight culture, and transfection is started after the cell density reaches 70-90%. The SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus S protein plasmid was transfected into 293T cells using Lipofectamine 3000 reagent. Cells were harvested 48h after transfection.

(2) Preparing a PBS buffer solution: first, 8.0g NaCl, 0.2g KCl and 1.44g Na are weighed₂HPO₄、0.24g KH₂PO₄Dissolving in 800mL of distilled water, adjusting pH to 7.35 with HCl, and adding distilled water to a constant volume of 1L to obtain 0.01M, pH 7.4.4 PBS buffer solution.

(3) Preparing a solution of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, wherein the storage concentration of the solution is 1-100 mu M and the solution is used as a test solution A;

(4) selecting representative other anti-new coronavirus medicines, such as medicines (such as Remdesivir, Molnnapiarvir or Paxlovid) approved by FDA to be on the market or medicines (such as Ensitrelvir or Prokluylamine) entering the later clinical stage, and respectively preparing solutions of the medicines and the medicines, wherein the storage concentration is 1 mu M-100 mu M, and the solutions are used as test solutions B-1-B-5.

(5) The test solution A and the test solutions B-1 to B-5 are combined to form combined test solutions C-1 to C-5 respectively.

(6) And (2) respectively acting the cell culture medium containing the prepared buffer solution and the test solution on the transfected 293T cells in the step (1), continuously culturing the cells for 24-72 h, collecting cell supernatants of an experimental group and a control group, simultaneously cracking the cells, respectively extracting RNA in the cell supernatants and cell lysates, and detecting the virus expression quantity in the cell supernatants and the cell lysates by adopting qPCR.

The results show that the combination of propranolol and its derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts with other anti-new coronavirus drugs, such as drugs approved by FDA (e.g. Remdesivir, Molnupiravir or paxlovid) or drugs already in late clinical stage (e.g. ensitrevir or procluiamine), can reduce the viral load by at least 1000 times. Some typical comparison results are shown in figure 2.

The specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the spirit of the invention. Various modifications or additions may be made to the described embodiments or alternatives may be employed by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or ambit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

While the invention has been described in detail and with reference to specific examples thereof, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.

Claims

1. The application of propranolol and derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing medicaments for preventing or treating coronavirus infection.

2. Use according to claim 1, wherein the coronavirus is SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV.

3. The use according to claim 2 of propranolol and its derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts for the manufacture of a medicament for the prevention or treatment of infection by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV, or middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus MERS-CoV.

4. Use according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said propranolol derivative is preferably O-acetyl propranolol or O-benzoyl propranolol.

5. The use according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said pharmaceutically acceptable salt of propranolol is preferably propranolol hydrochloride.

6. The propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are combined with other anti-new coronavirus medicines, and the application of the propranolol and the derivatives or the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in preparing the medicines for preventing or treating coronavirus infection is provided.

7. Use according to claim 6, wherein said other anti-neocoronaviral drug is preferably selected from the group consisting of an RdRp inhibitor, a 3CLp inhibitor or an RA antagonist.

8. Use according to claim 7, wherein the RdRp inhibitor is preferably Remdesivir or Molnopiravir, the 3CLp inhibitor is preferably Paxloivir or Ensittrelvir, and the RA antagonist is preferably pramipexole.

9. The use of claim 6, wherein the concentration of propranolol is 1 μ M to 100 μ M and the concentration of the other anti-neocoronaviral drug is 1 μ M to 100 μ M.

10. The use according to claim 1 or 3 or 6, wherein the medicament is a tablet, capsule, drop, spray, powder, inhalation, aerosol or nasal formulation comprising propranolol and its derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.