Investigation of the therapeutic potential of oxysterols in SARS-CoV-2 infection

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This project was funded earlier this summer (2020). To date, we have already: 1) contracted with Avanti Lipids to synthesize enantiomeric 25-hydroxycholesterol (25HC), which will be used as a control for 25HC to help distinguish protein-targeted vs. non-protein-targeted (membrane) effects of this oxysterol in our studies. 2) posted an advertisement to hire a postdoctoral fellow to conduct the proposed studies, and, to date, have received several applications. 3) completed studies of the effect of 25HC on infection of MRC-5 cells with HCoV-229E, an alternate endemic human coronavirus. 4) collaborated with the NIEHS Viral Vector Core Laboratory to begin construction of a SARS2 Spike protein pseudovirus with B-lactamase payload that can be used to assay virus-cell fusion. 5) commenced efforts to isolate a high-ACE2-expressing subclone of Calu-3 cells for future infection studies.