Sulfated Polysaccharides Effectively Inhibit SARS-Cov-2 In Vitro

COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has now spread worldwide with catastrophic human and economic impacts and currently has infected over 10 million people and killed over 500,000. In an effort to mitigate disease symptoms and impede viral spread, efforts in vaccine development and drug discovery are being conducted at a rapid pace. Recently, we showed that the well-known anticoagulant heparin has exceptional binding affinity to the spike protein (S-protein) of SARS-CoV-2.

To this end, we suggest that treatment of fucoidans, nebulized heparin, or possibly TriS-heparin in combination with or without current antiviral therapies, should be assessed first in human primary epithelial cells and then in human patients suffering from COVID-19.