Buckyballs to fight pandemic: Water-soluble fullerene derivatives with pendant carboxylic groups emerge as a new family of promising SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors.

Buckyballs to fight pandemic: Water-soluble fullerene derivatives with pendant carboxylic groups emerge as a new family of promising SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors.

Publication date: Dec 24, 2024

Herein, we present the first experimental study of individual water-soluble fullerene derivatives proving their ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The initial screening allowed us to identify a few new compounds that have demonstrated pronounced antiviral activity with IC values as low as 390 nM and selectivity indexes reaching 214. Time-of-addition analysis and molecular docking results suggested that the viral protease and/or the spike protein are the most probable targets inhibited by the fullerene derivatives. Further rational design of fullerene derivatives might lead to the development of compounds with further enhanced antiviral activity and decreased toxicity.

Concepts Keywords
Antiviral Antiviral activity
Docking Fullerene derivatives
Fight Mechanism
Fullerene SARS-CoV-2
Viral

Semantics

Type Source Name
drug DRUGBANK Water
disease IDO protein

Original Article

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