Salinomycin inhibits porcine epidemic diarrhea virus infection by targeting Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a re-emerging pathogen that causes severe economic losses in the pig industry. Commercial PEDV vaccines provide limited protection against PEDV virulent strains. Therefore, the development of novel vaccines and antiviral drugs is urgently required. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of Salinomycin (SLM) against PEDV infection in vitro. First, the half-maximal cytotoxic concentration (CC50) and half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of SLM were measured by a cell counting kit 8 (CCK-8) and cytopathic effect (CPE). The results showed that the CC50 of SLM on Vero cells was 7.698 μmol·L-1, and the IC50 for PEDV was 0.998 μmol·L-1. SLM dose-dependently suppressed the PEDV-QY strain infection in vitro. In addition, SLM mainly acted on the internalization and replication stages of the PEDV-QY strain, and had no significant effect on viral inactivation, attachment, and release. Finally, SLM inhibited PEDV infection by suppressing PEDV-induced Wnt/β-catenin activation. Collectively, these results suggest that SLM exerts anti-PEDV effects in vitro and presents a potential as an anti-PEDV drug.