Current drug targets
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Since its initial start in December 2019 at Wuhan, China, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been rapidly spreading and labelled as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The rate of human to human transmission of COVID-19 is far higher than severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS). With no drugs or vaccines approved for the treatment of the disease, physicians have been using pre-existing drugs to curb the disease. One potential anti-viral agent currently undergoing numerous clinical trials is remdesivir, a nucleotide analog that inhibits RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). ⋯ Initially, remdesivir was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19 with severe disease. But now, remdesivir has been granted for use under EUA to treat all hospitalized COVID-19 patients, irrespective of their severity of disease.
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Current drug targets · Jan 2021
Small-molecule Antiviral Agents in Ongoing Clinical Trials for COVID-19.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, due to the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in December 2019 and has rapidly spread globally. As the confirmed number of cases has reached 83 million worldwide, the potential severity and the deadly complications of the disease requires urgent development of effective drugs for prevention and treatment. No proven effective treatment for this virus currently exists. ⋯ This review highlights the small-molecule repurposed antiviral agents that are currently under investigation in clinical trials for COVID-19. These include viral polymerase and protease inhibitors remdesivir, galidesivir, favipiravir, ribavirin, sofosbuvir, tenofovir/emtricitabine, baloxavir marboxil, EIDD-2801, lopinavir/ritonavir; virus-/host-directed viral entry and fusion inhibitors arbidol chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine, chlorpromazine, camostat mesylate, nafamostat mesylate, bromhexine and agents with diverse/unclear mechanism of actions as oseltamivir, triazavirin, ivermectin, nitazoxanide, niclosamide and BLD-2660. The published preclinical and clinical data to date on these drugs as well as the mechanisms of action are reviewed.