Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors using Lung and Colonic Organoids.

TitleIdentification of SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors using Lung and Colonic Organoids.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsHan, Y, Duan, X, Yang, L, Nilsson-Payant, BE, Wang, P, Duan, F, Tang, X, Yaron, TM, Zhang, T, Uhl, S, Bram, Y, Richardson, C, Zhu, J, Zhao, Z, Redmond, D, Houghton, S, Nguyen, D-HT, Xu, D, Wang, X, Jessurun, J, Borczuk, A, Huang, Y, Johnson, JL, Liu, Y, Xiang, J, Wang, H, Cantley, LC, tenOever, BR, Ho, DD, Pan, FCheng, Evans, T, Chen, HJoyce, Schwartz, RE, Chen, S
JournalNature
Date Published2020 Oct 28
ISSN1476-4687
Abstract

There is an urgent need to create novel models using human disease-relevant cells to study SARS-CoV-2 biology and to facilitate drug screening. As SARS-CoV-2 primarily infects the respiratory tract, we developed a lung organoid model using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC-LOs). The hPSC-LOs, particularly alveolar type II-like cells, are permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and showed robust induction of chemokines upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, similar to what is seen in COVID-19 patients. Nearly 25% of these patients also have gastrointestinal manifestations, which are associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes. We therefore also generated complementary hPSC-derived colonic organoids (hPSC-COs) to explore the response of colonic cells to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We found that multiple colonic cell types, especially enterocytes, express ACE2 and are permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Using hPSC-LOs, we performed a high throughput screen of FDA-approved drugs and identified entry inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, including imatinib, mycophenolic acid (MPA), and quinacrine dihydrochloride (QNHC). Treatment at physiologically relevant levels of these drugs significantly inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection of both hPSC-LOs and hPSC-COs. Together, these data demonstrate that hPSC-LOs and hPSC-COs infected by SARS-CoV-2 can serve as disease models to study SARS-CoV-2 infection and provide a valuable resource for drug screening to identify candidate COVID-19 therapeutics.

DOI10.1038/s41586-020-2901-9
Alternate JournalNature
PubMed ID33116299