Fluvastatin mitigates SARS-CoV-2 infection in human lung cells Show others and affiliations
2021 (English) In: iScience, E-ISSN 2589-0042, Vol. 24, no 12, article id 103469Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Clinical data of patients suffering from COVID-19 indicates that statin therapy, used to treat hypercholesterolemia, is associated with a better disease outcome. Whether statins directly affect virus replication or influence the clinical outcome through modulation of immune responses is unknown. We therefore investigated the effect of statins on SARS-CoV-2 infection in human lung cells and found that only fluvastatin inhibited low and high pathogenic coronaviruses in vitro and ex vivo 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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages Elsevier, 2021. Vol. 24, no 12, article id 103469
Keywords [en]
Drugs, Virology
National Category
Infectious Medicine Clinical Medicine
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-190104 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103469 ISI: 000740245300008 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85120182160 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-190104 DiVA, id: diva2:1618799
Funder Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation EU, Horizon 2020, 871029 2021-12-102021-12-102025-02-18 Bibliographically approved