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Updated: Sep 25, 2025
An In Vitro Model to Study the Effect of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid-mediated Photodynamic Therapy on Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm
Published on: April 16, 2018
5-Aminolevulinic acid antiviral efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant in vitro
Mya Myat Ngwe Tun1, Takaya Sakura2, Yasuteru Sakurai3,4
1Department of Virology, Institute of Tropical Medicine (NEKKEN), Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, 852-8523, Japan. myamyat@tm.nagasaki-u.ac.jp.
Abstract:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic continues to pose a threat to global health. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) has spread rapidly worldwide and became dominant in many countries. A natural 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) with sodium ferrous citrate (SFC) has demonstrated antiviral activity in Wuhan, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 infections in vitro. In this study, we report antiviral activity of 5-ALA, 5-ALA with SFC led to IC50 of 329 and 765/191, respectively after infection with Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Our finding suggests that 5-ALA could be used as antiviral drug candidate to treat Omicron variant infected patients.
