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Virol J
. 2025 Oct 1;22(1):316.
doi: 10.1186/s12985-025-02921-5. The antimicrobial peptide nisin promotes host cell survival during SARS-CoV-2 infection
Bevin C English 1 2 , Allan Radaic 3 , Ross Barrios-Medina 3 , Kerui Lin 3 , Pachiyappan Kamarajan 3 , Anita Sil 2 4 , Yvonne L Kapila 5
Affiliations
COVID-19 has been a major public health concern for the past five years. While remarkable work has been done to develop therapies, there is still a need for more treatments to fight this disease. Recently, it was suggested that nisin, an FDA-approved antimicrobial compound, may interfere with SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells. Here, we show that nisin does not inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Surprisingly, nisin treatment leads to reduced host-cell death during infection in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that nisin may mitigate SARS-CoV-2-induced pathology.
Keywords: Antimicrobial peptide; Antiviral; Bacteriocin; Cell death; Nisin; SARS-CoV-2.
. 2025 Oct 1;22(1):316.
doi: 10.1186/s12985-025-02921-5. The antimicrobial peptide nisin promotes host cell survival during SARS-CoV-2 infection
Bevin C English 1 2 , Allan Radaic 3 , Ross Barrios-Medina 3 , Kerui Lin 3 , Pachiyappan Kamarajan 3 , Anita Sil 2 4 , Yvonne L Kapila 5
Affiliations
- PMID: 41035076
- DOI: 10.1186/s12985-025-02921-5
COVID-19 has been a major public health concern for the past five years. While remarkable work has been done to develop therapies, there is still a need for more treatments to fight this disease. Recently, it was suggested that nisin, an FDA-approved antimicrobial compound, may interfere with SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells. Here, we show that nisin does not inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Surprisingly, nisin treatment leads to reduced host-cell death during infection in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that nisin may mitigate SARS-CoV-2-induced pathology.
Keywords: Antimicrobial peptide; Antiviral; Bacteriocin; Cell death; Nisin; SARS-CoV-2.