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Theranostics 2021; 11(13):6193-6213. doi:10.7150/thno.59535 This issue Cite

Review

The therapeutic potential of inorganic polyphosphate: A versatile physiological polymer to control coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Hadrian Schepler^1✉, Xiaohong Wang^2✉, Meik Neufurth², Shunfeng Wang², Heinz C. Schröder², Werner E. G. Müller^2✉

1. Department of Dermatology, University Clinic Mainz, Langenbeckstr. 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany.
2. ERC Advanced Investigator Grant Research Group at the Institute for Physiological Chemistry, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, 55128 Mainz, Germany.

✉ Corresponding authors: Werner E. G. Müller, E-mail: wmuellerde; Tel: +49 6131-39-25910. Xiaohong Wang, E-mail: wang013de; Hadrian Schepler, E-mail: hadrian.scheplerde.

Abstract

Rationale: The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is advancing rapidly. In particular, the number of severe courses of the disease is still dramatically high. An efficient drug therapy that helps to improve significantly the fatal combination of damages in the airway epithelia, in the extensive pulmonary microvascularization and finally multiorgan failure, is missing. The physiological, inorganic polymer, polyphosphate (polyP) is a molecule which could prevent the initial phase of the virus life cycle, the attachment of the virus to the target cells, and improve the epithelial integrity as well as the mucus barrier.

Results: Surprisingly, polyP matches perfectly with the cationic groove on the RBD. Subsequent binding studies disclosed that polyP, with a physiological chain length of 40 phosphate residues, abolishes the binding propensity of the RBD to the ACE2 receptor. In addition to this first mode of action of polyP, this polymer causes in epithelial cells an increased gene expression of the major mucins in the airways, of MUC5AC and MUC1, as well as a subsequent glycoprotein production. MUC5AC forms a gel-like mucus layer trapping inhaled particles which are then transported out of the airways, while MUC1 constitutes the periciliary liquid layer and supports ciliary beating. As a third mode of action, polyP undergoes enzymatic hydrolysis of the anhydride bonds in the airway system by alkaline phosphatase, releasing metabolic energy.

Conclusions: This review summarizes the state of the art of the biotherapeutic potential of the polymer polyP and the findings from basic research and outlines future biomedical applications.

Keywords: polyphosphate, nanoparticles, SARS-CoV-2, viral receptor-binding domain

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