Skip to main content
PMC home page
Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection logoLink to Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection
letter
. 2022 Mar 22;65(6):1263–1266. doi: 10.1007/s11427-021-2093-2

Homo-harringtonine, highly effective against coronaviruses, is safe in treating COVID-19 by nebulization

Huajuan Ma 1,#, Haijun Wen 2,#, Yaoxu Qin 2, Shijie Wu 2, Ge Zhang 1, Chung-I Wu 2,✉, Qichun Cai 1,✉
PMCID: PMC8972673  PMID: 35362917

The content is available as a PDF (875.8 KB).

Electronic supplementary material

11427_2021_2093_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (246.7KB, pdf)

Supplementary Table 1. In vivo anti SARS CoV 2 efficacy of compounds targeting the viral life cycle.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81802939, 32150006, 31730046, and 81972691), the National Key Research and Development Projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2021YFC2301300), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC0863400), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2020B1515020030), the National Key Research and Development Project (2020YFC0847000), and the Innovation Group Project of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai; No. 311021006).

Footnotes

Contribute equally to this work

Contributor Information

Chung-I Wu, Email: zhongyi@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

Qichun Cai, Email: purecai@163.com.

References

  1. Alvandi F, Kwitkowski VE, Ko CW, Rothmann MD, Ricci S, Saber H, Ghosh D, Brown J, Pfeiler E, Chikhale E, et al. U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval summary: omacetaxine mepesuccinate as treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia. Oncologist. 2014;19:94–99. doi: 10.1634/theoncologist.2013-0077. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bai C, Zhong Q, Gao GF. Overview of SARS-CoV-2 genome-encoded proteins. Sci China Life Sci. 2022;65:280–294. doi: 10.1007/s11427-021-1964-4. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Consortium WST. Repurposed antiviral drugs for COVID-19—interim WHO solidarity trial results. N Engl J Med. 2021;384:497–511. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2023184. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Garreau de Loubresse N, Prokhorova I, Holtkamp W, Rodnina MV, Yusupova G, Yusupov M. Structural basis for the inhibition of the eukaryotic ribosome. Nature. 2014;513:517–522. doi: 10.1038/nature13737. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hammond, J., Leister-Tebbe, H., Gardner, A., Abreu, P., Bao, W., Wisemandle, W., Baniecki, M.L., Hendrick, V.M., Damle, B., Simón-Campos, A., et al. (2022). Oral nirmatrelvir for high-risk, nonhospitalized adults with COVID-19. N Engl J Med doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2118542. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
  6. Jayk Bernal A, Gomes da Silva MM, Musungaie DB, Kovalchuk E, Gonzalez A, Delos Reyes V, Martín-Quirós A, Caraco Y, Williams-Diaz A, Brown ML, et al. Molnupiravir for oral treatment of COVID-19 in nonhospitalized patients. N Engl J Med. 2022;386:509–520. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2116044. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. McCallum M, Czudnochowski N, Rosen LE, Zepeda SK, Bowen J E, Walls AC, Hauser K, Joshi A, Stewart C, Dillen JR, et al. Structural basis of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron immune evasion and receptor engagement. Science. 2022;375:864–868. doi: 10.1126/science.abn8652. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Perlman S, McIntosh K. Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier; 2020. Coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) [Google Scholar]
  9. Ruan Y, Hou M, Tang X, He X, Lu X, Lu J, Wu CI, Wen H. The runaway evolution of SARS-CoV-2 leading to the highly evolved Delta strain. Mol Biol Evol. 2022;39:msac046. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msac046. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Ruan Y, Wen H, Hou M, He Z, Lu X, Xue Y, He X, Zhang YP, Wu CI. The twin-beginnings of COVID-19 in Asia and Europe—one prevails quickly. Natl Sci Rev. 2022;9:nwab223. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwab223. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Schneider-Poetsch T, Yoshida M. Along the central dogma—controlling gene expression with small molecules. Annu Rev Biochem. 2018;87:391–420. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-060614-033923. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Simonis A, Theobald SJ, Fätkenheuer G, Rybniker J, Malin JJ. A comparative analysis of remdesivir and other repurposed antivirals against SARS-CoV-2. EMBO Mol Med. 2021;13:e13105. doi: 10.15252/emmm.202013105. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Wen HJ, Liu FL, Huang MX, Luo RH, He WB, Feng J, Chen F L, Cai QC, Ma HJ, Yang ZF, et al. A proposal for clinical trials of COVID-19 treatment using homo-harringtonine. Natl Sci Rev. 2021;8:nwaa257. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa257. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Wu CI, Wen H. Heightened protein-translation activities in mammalian cells and the disease/treatment implications. Natl Sci Rev. 2020;7:1851–1855. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa066. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Wu CI, Wen H, Lu J, Su XD, Hughes AC, Zhai W, Chen C, Chen H, Li M, Song S, et al. On the origin of SARS-CoV-2—The blind watchmaker argument. Sci China Life Sci. 2021;64:1560–1563. doi: 10.1007/s11427-021-1972-1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Supplementary Materials

11427_2021_2093_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (246.7KB, pdf)

Supplementary Table 1. In vivo anti SARS CoV 2 efficacy of compounds targeting the viral life cycle.

Articles from Science China. Life Sciences are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES