FIGURE 7.
Effect of BBR (berberine/NIT‐X) on ACE2, TMPRSS2 expression in infected Calu‐3 cells. Calu‐3 cells were seeded in six well plates with 5 × 105 cells per well. After 24 hours, cells were incubated in media containing 20 µg/mL, 40 µg/mL BBR/NIT‐X or DMSO (v/v 1:1000). After 3 days incubation, cells were infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 (MOI = 0.005) or mock (‐) for 1hr and grown in indicated media for 24 hours. One day post infection, total RNA were for cDNA synthesis. Real Time‐PCR was performed with the primer for SARS‐CoV‐2 (A) gRNA of SARS‐CoV2, (B) ACE2, and (C) TMPRSS2. Data were normalized to HPRT and presented as 2‐ΔCT. Data represent two sets of qPCR with six readouts. D, Cytotoxicity was performed using commercial CCK8 toxicity kit, *P < .05 versus infected, but not treated. # P < .05 versus uninfected/untreated