Figure 1.

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose inhibits severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) release in a dose-dependent manner. VeroE6 cells expressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2 (Vero A/T) in 24-well plates were infected with SARS-CoV-2 (England-2) at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.01 (upper panels) or 1 (lower panels) prior to addition of product A, B, or C, at 1 mg, 3 mg, or 6.4 mg per well. Supernatant samples were taken at 24, 48, and 72 h post-infection (hpi) and released virus quantified by plaque assay. Virus titres (plaque forming units (PFU)/mL) are shown for each product at each time point. Data points below the assay detection limit of 2 × 10¹ PFU/mL are shown with open circles. Error bars represent the standard deviation of two experiments, each carried out in triplicate. See Table S1 for details of statistical analyses.