PRIYASI MITTAL, ASSIM VERMA, ALKA NOKHWAL, CHAYANIKA PUTATUNDA, SANJAY BARUA, NAVEEN KUMAR AND BALDEV RAJ GULATI*
Indian Council of Agricultural Research – National Research Centre on Equines (ICAR-NRCE), Bagla Road, Hisar-125 001 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail: brgulati@gmail.com; Mobile: 94166 50040)
(Received: December 25, 2023; Accepted: February 9, 2024)
ABSTRACT
Bovine coronaviruses are associated with the severe diarrhoea in calves and winter dysentery with respiratory diseases in adult calves. The infection causes significant economic losses to the dairy industry as it leads to drastic reduction in milk production. Although infection with bovine coronaviruses has a low mortality, it has a high morbidity rate among cattle of all ages. A library of small molecule chemical inhibitors was screened comprising the inhibitors targeting cellular kinases and phosphatases, and identified SB203580 [an inhibitor of p38 mitogen activated kinase (p38 MAPK)] as one of the hits against bovine corona virus. The present study explored the antiviral efficacy of SB203580 against bovine corona virus (BoCoV). At a non-cytotoxic concentration (3 μg/ml), SB203580 was shown to significantly reduce BoCoV yield in NLBK cells. Further, SB203580 was not shown to exert any virucidal effect on extracellular BoCoV.
Key words: Bovine corona virus, p38-MAPK, SB203580, antiviral efficacy, virucidal activity