Folic acid restricts SARS-CoV-2 invasion by methylating ACE2
Yuanzhou Zhang, Yechun Pang, Baiyin Xu, Xingshi Chen, Shunshun Liang, Jingying Hu, Xiaoying Luo
Frontiers in Microbiology, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.980903
The current COVID-19 pandemic is motivating us to elucidate the molecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 invasion and find methods for decreasing its transmissibility. We found that SARS-CoV-2 could increase the protein level of ACE2 in mice. Folic acid and 5-10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) could promote the methylation of the ACE2 promoter and inhibit ACE2 expression. Folic acid treatment decreased the binding ability of Spike protein, pseudovirus and inactivated authentic SARS-CoV-2 to host cells. Thus, folic acid treatment could decrease SARS-CoV-2 invasion and SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibody production in mice. These data suggest that increased intake of folic acid may inhibit ACE2 expression and reduce the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2. Folic acid could play an important role in SARS-CoV-2 infection prevention and control.
Ethics statement The animal study was reviewed and approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Model Animal Research Center of Shanghai Cancer Institute.
Author contributions XL: manuscript editing, review, and data analysis. YZ, YP, and BX: data collection and experiments. XC, SL, and JH: figures preparation. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Conflict of interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher's note All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.980903/ full#supplementary-material
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