Hepatitis C Virus Protease Inhibitors Show Differential Efficacy and Interactions with Remdesivir for Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 In Vitro

Gammeltoft, Karen A.; Zhou, Yuyong; Duarte Hernandez, Carlos R.; Galli, Andrea; Offersgaard, Anna; Costa, Rui; Pham, Long V.; Fahnøe, Ulrik; Feng, Shan; Scheel, Troels K. H.; Ramirez, Santseharay; Bukh, Jens; Gottwein, Judith M.

Antivirals targeting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) could improve treatment of COVID-19. We evaluated the efficacy of clinically relevant hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 protease inhibitors (PIs) against SARS-CoV-2 and their interactions with remdesivir, the only direct-acting antiviral approved for COVID-19 treatment. HCV PIs showed differential potency in short-term treatment assays based on the detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in Vero E6 cells. Linear PIs boceprevir, telaprevir, and narlaprevir had 50% effective concentrations (EC(50)) of ∼40 μM. Among the macrocyclic PIs, simeprevir had the highest (EC(50), 15 μM) and glecaprevir the lowest (EC(50), >178 μM) potency, with paritaprevir, grazoprevir, voxilaprevir, vaniprevir, danoprevir, and deldeprevir in between. Acyclic PIs asunaprevir and faldaprevir had EC(50)s of 72 and 23 μM, respectively. ACH-806, inhibiting the HCV NS4A protease cofactor, had an EC(50) of 46 μM. Similar and slightly increased PI potencies were found in human hepatoma Huh7.5 cells and human lung carcinoma A549-hACE2 cells, respectively. Selectivity indexes based on antiviral and cell viability assays were highest for linear PIs. In short-term treatments, combination of macrocyclic but not linear PIs with remdesivir showed synergism in Vero E6 and A549-hACE2 cells. Longer-term treatment of infected Vero E6 and A549-hACE2 cells with 1-fold EC(50) PI revealed minor differences in the barrier to SARS-CoV-2 escape. Viral suppression was achieved with 3- to 8-fold EC(50) boceprevir or 1-fold EC(50) simeprevir or grazoprevir, but not boceprevir, in combination with 0.4- to 0.8-fold EC(50) remdesivir; these concentrations did not lead to viral suppression in single treatments. This study could inform the development and application of protease inhibitors for optimized antiviral treatments of COVID-19.