Current Trends in SPR Biosensing of SARS-CoV-2 Entry Inhibitors

Abstract

The emerging risk of viral diseases has triggered the search for preventive and therapeutic agents. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, greater efforts have been devoted to investigating virus entry mechanisms into host cells. The feasibility of plasmonic sensing technologies for screening interactions of small molecules in real time, while providing the pharmacokinetic drug profiling of potential antiviral compounds, offers an advantageous approach over other biophysical methods. This review summarizes recent advancements in the drug discovery process of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) inhibitors using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensors. A variety of SPR assay formats are discussed according to the binding kinetics and drug efficacies of both natural products and repurposed drugs. Special attention has been given to the targeting of antiviral agents that block the receptor binding domain of the spike protein (RBD-S) and the main protease (3CLpro) of SARS-CoV-2. The functionality of plasmonic biosensors for high-throughput screening of entry virus inhibitors was also reviewed taking into account experimental parameters (binding affinities, selectivity, stability), potential limitations and future applications.

Molecular Interactions of Tannic Acid with Proteins Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity

“…Our SPR method also finds a K D in the low nanomolar range for TA/3CLpro binding, 57.47 nM ( Figure 6 A), which is lower than previously described (0.78 to 25 µM TA) [ 24 ]. A recent review summarizes numerous results on SPR biosensing of SARS-CoV-2 [ 63 , 64 ]. In this work, both SPR and QCMD methods show high affinity between TA and RBD, TMPRSS2, and 3CLpro.…”

Unraveling the Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations: Insights from Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor Kinetics

“…For detection, diagnosis, and early screening of SARS-CoV-2, this topic has been reviewed by Pandey's group [14] and Nor's group [15]. More specific topics, such as using SPR technology to find materials that inhibit the entry of SARS-CoV-2 have been reviewed by Mauriz's group [16]. This paper tries to review the different perspectives on the use of SPR in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Biomimetic nanoplasmonic sensor for rapid evaluation of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies as antiviral therapy

“…The interrogation of certain properties of the light, such as angle, intensity or wavelength, provides quantitative information about the concentration of the analyte captured on the sensor surface and also the affinity and kinetic parameters of the biomolecular interaction. In the last two years, plasmonic biosensors have been demonstrated for different applications in COVID-19, primarily for antigen- and antibody-targeted diagnostics, but also for the study of the biomolecular interactions involved in the SARS-CoV-2 infection cycle ( Behrouzi and Lin, 2022 ; Hassan et al, 2021 ; Mauriz and Lechuga, 2021 ; Shrivastav et al, 2021 ; Syed Nor et al, 2022 ; Szunerits et al, 2022 ; Yano et al, 2022 ; Ye et al, 2021 ), with detection limits in the 1–100 ng/mL range for proteomic assays and 10 3 –10 5 viruses/mL for cell and genomic analysis, and for the screening and profiling of therapy candidates, including antibodies ( AminJafari and Ghasemi, 2020 ). However, these publications only address isolated biomolecular interactions, employing in-solution recombinant proteins with three-dimensional (3D) freedom that do not take into account the intrinsic cell physiology and microenvironment restrictions in terms of mobility and number of interactions ( Soler et al, 2018 ).…”