Journal: iScience
Article Title: CGM23 corresponds to a pan-coronavirus lipopeptide inhibitor potently inhibiting virion fusion
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.115334
Figure Lengend Snippet: Peptide design and evaluation (A) Schematic representation of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and amino acid sequences of HR2 peptides from SARS-CoV-2 and EK1 (HCoV-OC43 HR2 derived peptide). N , N-terminus ; C , C-terminus ; S1/S2 , cleavage site at S1/S2 boundary ; RBD , receptor-binding domain ; HR1 , heptad repeat 1 ; HR2 , heptad repeat 2 ; HR2P , heptad repeat 2 peptide. Syncytia assay. Left: GFP- and spike-expressing 293T cells were co-cultured with RFP- and ACE2-expressing Calu-6 cells for 16 h in the presence or absence of peptides. Center: double-positive cells (white arrows) indicative of syncytia formation are frequent in the presence of the scrambled EK1 peptide (Ⅰ) but not in the presence of CGM23 (Ⅱ) (100 nM). Right: quantification of syncytia formation in the presence of the scrambled EK1 peptide (top) or CGM23 (bottom) relative to mock treatment. (B) Sequence, N- and C-terminal modifications and IC 50 of the 15 peptides with IC 50 s < 10 nM in the syncytia assay. CoV-2, SARS-CoV-2; N-term, N-terminus; C-term, C-terminus. IC 50 data are means of samples from a representative experiment. Ac, acetylation; PPA, 4-phenylpropanoic acid; PBA, 4-phenylbutanonic acid. (C) Correlation between IC 50 values in the pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 spike virion assay and live SARS-CoV2 virus infection assay for the 15 peptides with IC 50 values below 10 nM in the syncytia assay. Statistical analysis was performed using Spearman’s rank test. (D and E) Dose-dependent inhibitory activity of CGM23 and EK1C4 relative to CG167 (EK1 scrambled peptide with EK1C4 lipidation) in the pseudotyped SARS-CoV2 spike virion assay (D) and live SARS-CoV2 infection assay (E). IC 50, half-maximal inhibitory concentration.
Article Snippet: Live virus experiments were performed with Calu-6 epithelial cells (ATCC HTB-56) stably expressing human Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) (OriGene, RC08442) as target cells.
Techniques: Derivative Assay, Binding Assay, Expressing, Cell Culture, Sequencing, Virus, Infection, Activity Assay, Concentration Assay