{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,16]],"date-time":"2026-05-16T03:01:54Z","timestamp":1778900514585,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,20]],"date-time":"2021-07-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1626739200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Treatment options for COVID-19, a disease caused by Severe\u00a0Acute\u00a0Respiratory\u00a0Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, are currently severely limited. Therefore, antiviral drugs that efficiently reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication or alleviate COVID-19 symptoms are urgently needed. Inhaled glucocorticoids are currently being discussed in the context of treatment for COVID-19, partly based on a previous study that reported reduced recovery times in cases of mild COVID-19 after inhalative administration of the glucocorticoid budesonide. Given various reports that describe the potential antiviral activity of glucocorticoids against respiratory viruses, we aimed to analyze a potential antiviral activity of budesonide against SARS-CoV-2 and circulating variants of concern (VOC) B.1.1.7 (alpha) and B.1.351 (beta). We demonstrate a dose-dependent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 that was comparable between all viral variants tested while cell viability remains unaffected. Our results are encouraging as they could indicate a multimodal mode of action of budesonide against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, which could contribute to an improved clinical performance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v13071411","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,20]],"date-time":"2021-07-20T11:26:10Z","timestamp":1626780370000},"page":"1411","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Antiviral Effect of Budesonide against SARS-CoV-2"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0906-5073","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Natalie","family":"Heinen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8962-9443","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Toni Luise","family":"Meister","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7707-2040","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mara","family":"Kl\u00f6hn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eike","family":"Steinmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3564-1014","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Todt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"},{"name":"European Virus Bioinformatics Center (EVBC), 07743 Jena, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Stephanie","family":"Pfaender","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"727","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa2001017","article-title":"A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019","volume":"382","author":"Zhu","year":"2020","journal-title":"N. 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