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FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
05, 2020;34 (5): 6008-6016.

Existing bitter medicines for fighting 2019-nCoV-associated infectious diseases.

Xiangqi Li, Chaobao Zhang, Lianyong Liu, Mingjun Gu
Author Information
  1. Xiangqi Li: Department of Endocrinology, Shanghai Gongli Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
  2. Chaobao Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
  3. Lianyong Liu: Department of Endocrinology, Punan Hospital of Pudong New District, Shanghai, China.
  4. Mingjun Gu: Department of Endocrinology, Shanghai Gongli Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
PMID: 32281695 DOI: 10.1096/fj.202000502

Abstract

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has led to more than seven thousand deaths. Unfortunately, there are no specific drugs available to cure this disease. Type 2 taste receptors (TAS2Rs) may play an important role in host defense mechanisms. Based on the idea of host-directed therapy (HDT), we performed a negative co-expression analysis using big data of 60 000 Affymetrix expression arrays and 5000 TCGA data sets to determine the functions of TAS2R10, which can be activated by numerous bitter substances. Excitingly, we found that the main functions of TAS2R10 involved controlling infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites, suggesting that TAS2R10 is a key trigger of host defense pathways. To quickly guide the clinical treatment of 2019-nCoV, we searched currently available drugs that are agonists of TAS2Rs. We identified many cheap, available, and safe medicines, such as diphenidol, quinine, chloroquine, artemisinin, chlorpheniramine, yohimbine, and dextromethorphan, which may target the most common symptoms caused by 2019-nCoV. We suggest that a cocktail-like recipe of existing bitter drugs may help doctors to fight this catastrophic disease and that the general public may drink or eat bitter substances, such as coffee, tea, or bitter vegetables, to reduce the risk of infection.

Keywords

2019-nCoV COVID-19 coronavirus cytokine storm infectious disease type 2 taste receptors (TAS2Rs)

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Grants

  1. PWZxk2017-07/Pudong Health and Family Planning Commission of Shanghai
  2. PWZzk2017-29/Pudong Health and Family Planning Commission of Shanghai
  3. PWRI2018-02/Pudong Health and Family Planning Commission of Shanghai
  4. PKJ2019-Y21/Pudong New Area Science and Technology Commission
  5. 2019M651615/China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
  6. 2018229/China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

MeSH Term

Antiviral Agents
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
Computational Biology
Coronavirus Infections
Databases, Genetic
Databases, Pharmaceutical
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation
Humans
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral
Receptors, Cell Surface
Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
SARS-CoV-2

Chemicals

Antiviral Agents
Receptors, Cell Surface
Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
TAS2R10 protein, human
taste receptors, type 2
Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Article has an altmetric score of 21

Word Cloud

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