Hypertonic saline and aprotinin based blockage of SARS-CoV-2 specific furin site cleavage by inhibition of nasal protease activity

Li, A.; Li, C. T.

doi:10.1101/2021.11.19.469276

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.11.19.469276

Hypertonic saline and aprotinin based blockage of SARS-CoV-2 specific furin site cleavage by inhibition of nasal protease activity

Li, A.·Li, C. T.

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Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 enters into the human body mainly through the nasal epithelial cells. Cell entry of SARS-CoV-2 needs to be pre-activated by S1/S2 boundary furin motif cleavage by furin and/or relevant proteases. It is important to locally block SARS-CoV-2 S1/S2 site cleavage caused by furin and other relevant protease activity in the nasal cavity. We tested hypertonic saline and aprotinin-based blockage of SARS-CoV-2 specific furin site cleavage by furin, trypsin and nasal swab samples containing nasal proteases. Our results show that saline and aprotinin block SARS-Cov-2 specific furin site cleavage and that a saline and aprotinin combination could significantly reduce SARS-Cov-2 wild-type and P681R mutant furin site cleavage by inhibition of nasal protease activity.

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Li, A., Li, C. T.. 2021-11-22. Hypertonic saline and aprotinin based blockage of SARS-CoV-2 specific furin site cleavage by inhibition of nasal protease activity. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.19.469276

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