Fig. 7.

Treatment of human primary monocytes with HP-BCD inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication and cytokine expression. A-D) Human primary monocytes were treated or not with 10 mM HP-BCD for 1 h, the cells were washed and then mock treated or infected with SARS-CoV-2 (A2 strain; MOI = 0.1). After 24–72 hpi, the cell lysates and supernatants were harvested, and virus RNA concentration (N2 log copy numbers) was evaluated by qRT-PCR. A-B) Bars indicate the average and SD of SARS-CoV-2-N2 copy numbers detected in the cell lysates (intracellular; A) or in the supernatants (extracellular; B), and dots indicate the data obtained from individual donors; the ratio between treated and untreated cells were indicate as (D). C) The percentage inhibition of viral RNA levels was calculated from the data obtained in (A) and (B). D) Lines indicate the kinetic accumulation of intracellular and extracellular virus RNA in HP-BCD-pretreated (HP-BCD) or untreated (ctrl) cells; statistical difference between the obtained AUCs were calculated and *p < 0.05. E-G) Monocytes were pretreated or not with 10 mM HP-BCD, then, the cells were mock-treated or infected with SARS-CoV-2 at a MOI of 0.5. LPS was added as a positive control. After 24 h, the cell lysates were harvested and TNF-α (E), IL-6 (F), and IL-10 (G) mRNA levels were measured by qRT-PCR and calculated by ΔΔCt method, based on GAPDH mRNA expression; bars indicate fold induction in relation to mock-treated cells.