Leptomycin B for COVID-19

 Leptomycin B has been reported as potentially beneficial for COVID-19 in the following studies.
COVID-19 involves the interplay of 350+ viral and host proteins and factors providing many therapeutic targets. Scientists have proposed 10,000+ potential treatments. c19early.org analyzes 210+ treatments. We have not reviewed leptomycin B in detail.
Kofler et al., M-Motif, a potential non-conventional NLS in YAP/TAZ and other cellular and viral proteins that inhibits classic protein import, iScience, doi:10.1016/j.isci.2025.112105
Ulloa-Aguilar et al., The Nucleolus and Its Interactions with Viral Proteins Required for Successful Infection, Cells, doi:10.3390/cells13181591
Nuclear bodies are structures in eukaryotic cells that lack a plasma membrane and are considered protein condensates, DNA, or RNA molecules. Known nuclear bodies include the nucleolus, Cajal bodies, and promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies. These bodies are involved in the concentration, exclusion, sequestration, assembly, modification, and recycling of specific components involved in the regulation of ribosome biogenesis, RNA transcription, and RNA processing. Additionally, nuclear bodies have been shown to participate in cellular processes such as the regulation of transcription of the cell cycle, mitosis, apoptosis, and the cellular stress response. The dynamics and functions of these bodies depend on the state of the cell. It is now known that both DNA and RNA viruses can direct their proteins to nuclear bodies, causing alterations in their composition, dynamics, and functions. Although many of these mechanisms are still under investigation, it is well known that the interaction between viral and nuclear body proteins is necessary for the success of the viral infection cycle. In this review, we concisely describe the interaction between viral and nuclear body proteins. Furthermore, we focus on the role of the nucleolus in RNA virus infections. Finally, we discuss the possible implications of the interaction of viral proteins on cellular transcription and the formation/degradation of non-coding RNAs.
Niarakis et al., Drug-target identification in COVID-19 disease mechanisms using computational systems biology approaches, Frontiers in Immunology, doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1282859
IntroductionThe COVID-19 Disease Map project is a large-scale community effort uniting 277 scientists from 130 Institutions around the globe. We use high-quality, mechanistic content describing SARS-CoV-2-host interactions and develop interoperable bioinformatic pipelines for novel target identification and drug repurposing. MethodsExtensive community work allowed an impressive step forward in building interfaces between Systems Biology tools and platforms. Our framework can link biomolecules from omics data analysis and computational modelling to dysregulated pathways in a cell-, tissue- or patient-specific manner. Drug repurposing using text mining and AI-assisted analysis identified potential drugs, chemicals and microRNAs that could target the identified key factors.ResultsResults revealed drugs already tested for anti-COVID-19 efficacy, providing a mechanistic context for their mode of action, and drugs already in clinical trials for treating other diseases, never tested against COVID-19. DiscussionThe key advance is that the proposed framework is versatile and expandable, offering a significant upgrade in the arsenal for virus-host interactions and other complex pathologies.