Investigation the Effect of Montelukast in COVID-19

Small molecule inhibitors have previously been investigated in different studies as possible therapeutics in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. In the current drug repurposing study, the investigators identified the leukotriene (D4) receptor antagonist Montelukast as a novel agent that simultaneously targets two important drug targets of SARS-CoV-2. The investigators initially demonstrated the dual inhibition (main protease and Spike/ACE2) profile of Montelukast through multiscale molecular modeling studies. Next, the investigators characterized its effect on both targets by different in vitro experiments including the Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)-based main protease enzyme inhibition assay, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, pseudovirus neutralization on HEK293T / hACE2, and virus neutralization assay using xCELLigence MP real time cell analyzer.