AUTHOR=Zhang Hongliang , Li Yingguang , Yang Ruimei , Xiao Ling , Dong Shaoming , Lin Jiaxu , Liu Gang , Shan Hu 

TITLE=Erastin inhibits porcine epidemic diarrhea virus replication in Vero cells

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1142173

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2023.1142173

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), an intestinal pathogenic coronavirus, has caused significant economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. At present, there are several treatment methods, but there is still a lack of clinically effective targeted drugs, new antiviral mechanisms and drugs need to be explored.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>In this study, we established a model of erastin versus ferrostatin-1 treatment of Vero cells, and then detected virus proliferation and gene expression by RT-qPCR through PEDV infection experiments.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>We demonstrated for the first time that erastin significantly inhibited the replication of PEDV upon entry into cells; Vero treated with erastin significantly regulated the expression of three genes, <italic>NRF2</italic>, <italic>ACSL4</italic> and <italic>GPX4</italic>, notably erastin regulated the expression of these three genes negatively correlated with the expression induced by PEDV virus infection.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>Since <italic>NRF2</italic>, <italic>ACSL4</italic> and <italic>GPX4</italic> are classical Ferroptosis genes, this study speculates that erastin may inhibit the replication of PEDV in Vero cells in part through the regulation of ferroptosis pathway, and erastin may be a potential drug for the treatment of PEDV infection.</p></sec>