A rapid phenomics workflow for the in vitro identification of antiviral drugs

Rietdijk, J.; Tempere, M.; Pettke, A.; Georgiev, P.; Lapins, M.; Warpman Berglund, U.; Spjuth, O.; Puumalainen, M.-R.; Carreras-Puigvert, J.

doi:10.1101/2021.01.13.423947

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.01.13.423947

A rapid phenomics workflow for the in vitro identification of antiviral drugs

Rietdijk, J.·Tempere, M.·Pettke, A.·Georgiev, P.·Lapins, M.·Warpman Berglund, U.·Spjuth, O.·Puumalainen, M.-R.·Carreras-Puigvert, J.

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Abstract

BackgroundThe current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for new and fast methods to identify novel or repurposed therapeutic drugs. Here we present a method for untargeted phenotypic drug screening of virus-infected cells, combining Cell Painting with antibody-based detection of viral infection in a single assay. We designed an image analysis pipeline for segmentation and classification of virus-infected and non-infected cells, followed by extraction of morphological properties. ResultsWe show that the methodology can successfully capture virus-induced phenotypic signatures of MRC-5 human lung fibroblasts infected with Human coronavirus 229E (CoV-229E). Moreover, we demonstrate that our method can be used in phenotypic drug screening using a panel of nine host- and virus-targeting antivirals. Treatment with effective antiviral compounds reversed the morphological profile of the host cells towards a non-infected state. ConclusionsThe method can be used in drug discovery for morphological profiling of novel antiviral compounds on both infected and non-infected cells.

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Rietdijk, J., Tempere, M., Pettke, A., Georgiev, P., Lapins, M., Warpman Berglund, U., Spjuth, O., Puumalainen, M.-R., Carreras-Puigvert, J.. 2021-01-13. A rapid phenomics workflow for the in vitro identification of antiviral drugs. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.13.423947

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