Antiviral Effect Against SARS-CoV-2 of Dinitrosyl Iron Complex Solutions when Inhaled to Syrian Hamsters in a “Nose-Only” Chamber

There was no noticeable change in the antiviral effect of inhalation of solutions of binuclear dinitrozyl iron complexes with glutathione (B-DNIC-GSH) and sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (DETC) to Syrian hamsters infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus when they were successively administered to animals in a “nose-only” chamber or a “whole-body” chamber. Inhalation in the “whole-body” chamber, which led to wetting of the animals’ bodies, led only to a decrease in the level of mononuclear dinitrosyl iron complexes with thiol groups of proteins recorded by the EPR method in the lungs, without changing the total content of the binuclear and mononuclear forms of dinitrosyl iron complexes. It is assumed that the antiviral effect of B-DNIC-GSH + DETC against the SARS-CoV-2 virus was due to nitrosonium (NO⁺) cations released from B-DNIC-GSH as a result of its destruction by DETC molecules. A similar antiviral effect on the Syrian hamster models was exerted by a less stable than B-DNIC-GSH complex with mercaptosuccinate, without additional aerosol treatment of animals with a solution of DETC.