Heparin mimetics as potential intervention for COVID-19 and their bio-manufacturing

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe health problems worldwide and unprecedented decimation of the global economy. Moreover, after more than 2 years, many populations are still under pressure of infection. Thus, a broader perspective in developing antiviral strategies is still of great importance. Inspired by the observed multiple benefits of heparin in the treatment of thrombosis, the potential of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) for the treatment of COVID-19 have been explored. Clinical applications found that LMWH decreased the level of inflammatory cytokines in COVID-19 patients, accordingly reducing lethality. Furthermore, several in vitro studies have demonstrated the important roles of heparan sulfate in SARS-CoV-2 infection and the inhibitory effects of heparin and heparin mimetics in viral infection. These clinical observations and designed studies argue for the potential to develop heparin mimetics as anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug candidates. In this review, we summarize the properties of heparin as an anticoagulant and the pharmaceutical possibilities for the treatment of virus infection, focusing on the perspectives of developing heparin mimetics via chemical synthesis, chemoenzymatic synthesis, and bioengineered production by microbial cell factories. The ultimate goal is to pave the eminent need for exploring novel compounds to treat coronavirus infection-caused diseases.

Keywords: Bio-production; Biological activities; Biosynthesis; Heparin.

Fig. 1

Illustration of heparin and heparan sulfate (HS) structure.

Fig. 2

The anticoagulation activity of heparin. Antithrombin (a) has low affinity to coagulation enzymes. The conformation of AT (b) is changed after specific binding to the pentasaccharide in heparin chains, which significantly increased the affinity of AT to the coagulation enzymes (c).

Fig. 3

Heparan sulfate serves as a receptor for viral attachment. Heparan sulfate interacts with the receptor-binding domain of spike glycoprotein, adjacent specific entry receptor, shifting the spike structure to an open conformation to facilitate ACE2 binding.

Fig. 4

Biosynthesis of heparin and heparan sulfate.

Fig. 5

Intelligent bio-production of heparin with 5Ms strategy.