High-Sulfated Glycosaminoglycans Prevent Coronavirus Replication

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are common among humans and many animals, causing respiratory or gastrointestinal diseases. Currently, only a few antiviral drugs against CoVs are available. Especially for SARS-CoV-2, new compounds for treatment of COVID-19 are urgently needed. In this study, we characterize the antiviral effects of two high-sulfated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) derivatives against SARS-CoV-2 and bovine coronaviruses (BCoV), which are both members of the Betacoronavirus genus. The investigated compounds are based on hyaluronan (HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) and exhibit a strong inhibitory effect against both CoVs. Yield assays were performed using BCoV-infected PT cells in the presence and absence of the compounds. While the high-sulfated HA (sHA3) led to an inhibition of viral growth early after infection, high-sulfated CS (sCS3) had a slightly smaller effect. Time of addition assays, where sHA3 and sCS3 were added to PT cells before, during or after infection, demonstrated an inhibitory effect during all phases of infection, whereas sHA3 showed a stronger effect even after virus absorbance. Furthermore, attachment analyses with prechilled PT cells revealed that virus attachment is not blocked. In addition, sHA3 and sCS3 inactivated BCoV by stable binding. Analysis by quantitative real-time RT PCR underlines the high potency of the inhibitors against BCoV, as well as B.1-lineage, Alpha and Beta SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Taken together, these results demonstrated that the two high-sulfated GAG derivatives exhibit low cytotoxicity and represent promising candidates for an anti-CoV therapy.