Fig. 5

Pre-treatment and post-treatment of cells with FAC, Venofer and IONPs reduces SARS-CoV-2 replication and transcription. A Vero E6 cells were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and 1 hpi, the cells were treated with FAC, Venofer or the IONPs (FeraSpinR, DMSA-IONP-10, APS-IONP-10, and DMSA-IONP-16) at two different concentrations, or left untreated (control cells). B Vero E6 cells were treated with FAC, Venofer or the IONPs indicated in A, and 24 h after treatment, the cells were infected with SARS-CoV-2. A and B Total RNA was extracted at 6 and 16 hpi, and the levels of viral gene 7 sg mRNA, viral gRNA and GAPDH RNA were measured by qRT-PCR. The levels of gene 7 sg mRNA and viral gRNA were normalized to the levels of GAPDH, and represented relative to the levels in control, untreated cells (%). The data (mean ± SD) were representative of three independent experiments and they were evaluated by two-way ANOVA followed by a Sidak’s multiple comparison test: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001; and ns, no significant differences