Methylene Blue Has Strong Extracellular Virucidal Activity Against a SARS-CoV-2-Related Pangolin Coronavirus with No Intracellular or In Vivo Efficacy
Lai Wei, Yuezhen Ma, Yuhao Ren, Shanshan Lu, Xiumei Xiao, Shengdong Luo, Xiaoping An, Erguang Li, Huahao Fan, Lihua Song, Sonia Zuñiga · 2024
Read Methylene Blue Has Strong Extracellular Virucidal Activity Against a SARS-CoV-2-Related Pangolin Coronavirus with No Intracellular or In Vivo Efficacy by Lai Wei, Yuezhen Ma, Yuhao Ren, Shanshan Lu, Xiumei Xiao, Shengdong Luo, Xiaoping An, Erguang Li, Huahao Fan, Lihua Song, Sonia Zuñiga (2024) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-11597880.txt.
Description
Methylene blue, a common dye and drug, kills viruses in lab dishes, which raised hopes it might treat COVID-like infections. The authors test it against a pangolin coronavirus closely related to SARS-CoV-2. In dish tests, the dye strongly inactivated virus particles outside cells. Yet it did not stop the virus from copying itself inside infected cells. The comparison drug nirmatrelvir showed the opposite pattern: no direct killing, but strong blocking of replication.
In mice bred to be vulnerable to the virus, methylene blue gave no protection against a lethal infection. Tests in mouse plasma help explain why: plasma raised the dose needed for the dye to work, so blood components weaken it. The authors conclude that direct virus killing in a dish does not guarantee benefit in a living animal. Their findings offer a caution and a guide for future antiviral work.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Lai Wei, Yuezhen Ma, Yuhao Ren, Shanshan Lu, Xiumei Xiao, Shengdong Luo, Xiaoping An, Erguang Li, Huahao Fan, Lihua Song, Sonia Zuñiga |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 25 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |