Enisamium Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 RNA Synthesis. Author Stefano Elli, Denisa Bojkova, Marco Bechtel, Thomas Vial, David Boltz, Miguel Muzzio, Xinjian Peng, Federico Sala, Cesare Cosentino, Andrew Goy, Marco Guerrini, Lutz Müller, Jindrich Cinatl, Victor Margitich, Aartjan Velthuis Publication Year 2021 Type Journal Article Abstract Pandemic SARS-CoV-2 causes a mild to severe respiratory disease called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While control of the SARS-CoV-2 spread partly depends on vaccine-induced or naturally acquired protective herd immunity, antiviral strategies are still needed to manage COVID-19. Enisamium is an inhibitor of influenza A and B viruses in cell culture and clinically approved in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In vitro, enisamium acts through metabolite VR17-04 and inhibits the activity of the influenza A virus RNA polymerase. Here we show that enisamium can inhibit coronavirus infections in NHBE and Caco-2 cells, and the activity of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA polymerase in vitro. Docking and molecular dynamics simulations provide insight into the mechanism of action and indicate that enisamium metabolite VR17-04 prevents GTP and UTP incorporation. Overall, these results suggest that enisamium is an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 RNA synthesis in vitro. Journal Biomedicines Volume 9 Issue 9 Date Published 2021 Sep 17 ISSN Number 2227-9059 DOI 10.3390/biomedicines9091254 Alternate Journal Biomedicines PMCID PMC8467925 PMID 34572438 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML