Taurultam shows antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus

Taurultam shows antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus

Abstract Background SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus are highly contagious respiratory viruses that continuously pose major threats to human and public health. The high frequency of viral mutations led to the emergence of resistant isolates and caused virus epidemics repeatedly, emphasizing the urgent...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rongbo Luo, Beilei Shen, Bingshuo Qian, Lingjun Fan, Junkui Zhang, Xiuwen Deng, Yan Sun, Shijun Zhang, Tiecheng Wang, Yuanguo Li, Weiyang Sun, Xiaobin Pang, Wu Zhong, Yuwei Gao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-05-01
Series:BMC Microbiology
Subjects:
SARS-CoV-2
Influenza virus
Antiviral
Lung injury
Taurultam
Taurolidine metabolite
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-025-03847-2
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Background SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus are highly contagious respiratory viruses that continuously pose major threats to human and public health. The high frequency of viral mutations led to the emergence of resistant isolates and caused virus epidemics repeatedly, emphasizing the urgent need to develop new antivirals. Taurultam is a metabolite of taurolidine. Moreover, taurolidine has been shown to have potent antiviral activities against multiple viruses and to have antiviral effects through its metabolites. Results In this study, we sought to determine the antiviral activities of taurultam against SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus in Vero-E6, Huh7, 293T-ACE2, and MDCK cell lines and mouse infection models. The results showed that taurultam exhibited potent antiviral activity against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, influenza A (H1N1, H3N2) virus and influenza B virus, in vitro. Moreover, in influenza A (H1N1) virus, influenza B virus and SARS-CoV-2 infection models, taurultam significantly reduced viral loads, increased survival, improved mouse body weight and lung injury. Surprisingly, taurultam treatment not only inhibited the influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2, but also benefited for therapy of mixed infection of these two viruses in vitro, demonstrating the great antiviral potential of taurultam for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus infections. Conclusions Together, our findings identify taurultam as a new candidate for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus infections, especially virus-induced lung pathology. Clinical trial number Not applicable.
ISSN:1471-2180

Similar Items