Figure 7.

Celastrol inhibits IL‐6 production in SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected human cell lines. ELISA quantification of IL‐6 in the culture supernatants from the human cell lines (a) Caco‐2 and (b) Calu‐3, infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 (MOI = 1.0) for 2 h. Then, after the washing step, infected cells were treated with celastrol for 48 h. DMSO solution at 0.05% (vehicle) was used as the negative control. Statistical differences between celastrol treatment and control were analyzed by ANOVA followed by Tukey's posttest. The significance levels were indicated as **p < .01, ***p < .001, and ****p < .0001. The results are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM) of IL‐6 (pg/ml). They are representative of two independent experiments with Caco‐2 cells with three replicates and one experiment with Calu‐3 cells with four replicates. ANOVA, analysis of variance; IL‐6, interleukin‐6; MOI, multiplicity of infection; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.