Repurposing of Antiviral Drugs for Covid-19 Therapy

  • Hussain Mustatab Wahedi National University of Medical Sciences
  • Deeba Amraiz National University of Medical Sciences
Keywords: Antiviral Drugs, Coronavirus, Drug Repurposing, Drug Repositioning

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) is one of the biggest health challenges across the globe ever since its eruption in late 2019. Novelty, contagiousness, and lethality of the virus demand the expedited production of potential therapeutic agents and strategies against it. Since no COVID-19 specific drug is available yet, it persists a crucial challenge to determine what therapeutic strategies should be adopted for the treatment of coronavirus patients. Until there is any specific drug for COVID-19, repurposing of the existing FDA-approved drugs is the most suitable approach to treat the severely ill patients of COVID-19. This review will summarize the existing antiviral drugs being repurposed and probed for their potential as effective anti-COVID-19 drugs all over the world.

Author Biography

Deeba Amraiz, National University of Medical Sciences

Assistant Professor 

Department of Biological Sciences

References

Fan HH, Wang LQ, Liu WL, An XP, Liu ZD, He XQ, et al. Repurposing of clinically approved drugs for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 in a 2019-novel coronavirus- related coronavirus model. Chinese medical journal. 2020; 133: 1051-6.

LuR,ZhaoX,LiJ,NiuP,YangB,WuH,etal.Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding. The Lancet. 2020; 395: 565-74.

Rothan HA, Byrareddy SN. The epidemiology and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. Journal of autoimmunity. 2020: 102433.

McKee DL, Sternberg A, Stange U, Laufer S, Naujokat C. Candidate drugs against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Pharmacological Research. 2020: 104859.

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. [Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/

en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases.

Organization WH. 2020 [Available from: https://covid19.who.int/.

Government of Pakistan. [Available from: http://covid.gov.pk/.

Villalaín J. Membranotropic effects of arbidol, a broad anti-viral molecule, on phospholipid model membranes. The journal of physical chemistry B. 2010; 114: 8544-54.

Deng L, Li C, Zeng Q, Liu X, Li X, Zhang H, et al. Arbidol combined with LPV/r versus LPV/r alone against Corona Virus Disease 2019: A retrospective cohort study. The Journal of infection. 2020;81(1):e1-e5.

Chen C, Huang J, Cheng Z, Wu J, Chen S, Zhang Y, et al. Favipiravir versus arbidol for COVID-19: a randomized clinical trial. MedRxiv. 2020.

Chen W, Yao M, Fang Z, Lv X, Deng M, Wu Z. A study on clinical effect of Arbidol combined with adjuvant therapy on COVID-19. Journal of medical virology. 2020.

Li Y, Xie Z, Lin W, Cai W, Wen C, Guan Y, et al. An exploratory randomized, controlled study on the efficacy and safety of lopinavir/ritonavir or arbidol treating adult patients hospitalized with mild/moderate COVID-19 (ELACOI). MedRxiv. 2020.

Zhu Z, Lu Z, Xu T, Chen C, Yang G, Zha T, et al. Arbidol monotherapy is superior to lopinavir/ritonavir in treating COVID-19. Journal of Infection. 2020; 81: e21-e3.

Siegel D, Hui HC, Doerffler E, Clarke MO, Chun K, Zhang L, et al. Discovery and Synthesis of a Phosphoramidate Prodrug of a Pyrrolo [2, 1-f][triazin-4-amino] Adenine C-Nucleoside (GS-5734) for the Treatment of Ebola and Emerging Viruses. ACS Publications; 2017.

Wu R, Wang L, Kuo HCD, Shannar A, Peter R, Chou PJ, et al. An update on current therapeutic drugs treating COVID-19.Current Pharmacology Reports. 2020: 1.

Holshue ML, DeBolt C, Lindquist S, Lofy KH, Wiesman J, Bruce H, et al. First case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020.

Wang Y, Zhang D, Du G, Du R, Zhao J, Jin Y, et al. Remdesivir in adults with severe COVID-19: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial. The Lancet. 2020.

Beigel JH, Tomashek KM, Dodd LE, Mehta AK, Zingman BS, Kalil AC, et al. Remdesivir for the treatment of Covid- 19—preliminary report. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020.

Goldman JD, Lye DC, Hui DS, Marks KM, Bruno R, Montejano R, et al. Remdesivir for 5 or 10 days in patients with severe Covid-19. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020.

Furuta Y, Komeno T, Nakamura T. Favipiravir (T-705), a broad spectrum inhibitor of viral RNA polymerase. Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B. 2017; 93: 449-63.

De Clercq E. New nucleoside analogues for the treatment of hemorrhagic fever virus infections. Chemistry–An Asian Journal. 2019; 14: 3962-8.

Lou Y, Liu L, Qiu Y. Clinical Outcomes and Plasma Concentrations of Baloxavir Marboxil and Favipiravir in COVID-19 Patients: an Exploratory Randomized, Controlled Trial. medRxiv. 2020.

Bhatia HK, Singh H, Grewal N, Natt NK. Sofosbuvir: A novel treatment option for chronic hepatitis C infection. Journal of pharmacology & pharmacotherapeutics. 2014; 5: 278. 24. Parker WB. Metabolism and antiviral activity of ribavirin. Virus research. 2005; 107: 165-71.

Hung IFN, Lung KC, Tso EYK, Liu R, Chung TWH, Chu MY, et al. Triple combination of interferon beta-1b, lopinavir–ritonavir, and ribavirin in the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19: an open- label, randomised, phase 2 trial. The Lancet. 2020; 395: 1695-704.

Chan KW, Wong VT, Tang SCW. COVID-19: An update on the epidemiological, clinical, preventive and therapeutic evidence and guidelines of integrative Chinese–Western medicine for the management of 2019 novel coronavirus disease. The American journal of Chinese medicine. 2020; 48: 737-62.

Korba BE, Furman PA, Otto MJ. Clevudine: a potent inhibitor of hepatitis B virus in vitro and in vivo. Expert review of anti- infective therapy. 2006; 4: 549-61.

McClellan K, Perry CM. Oseltamivir: a review of its use in influenza. Drugs. 2001; 61: 263-83.

Wang D, Hu B, Hu C, Zhu F, Liu X, Zhang J, et al. Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus–infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Jama. 2020; 323: 1061-9.

gov NUSNLoMC. 2020 [Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04338698.

Wang RR, Yang QH, Luo RH, Peng YM, Dai SX, Zhang XJ, et al. Azvudine, a novel nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor showed good drug combination features and better inhibition on drug-resistant strains than lamivudine in vitro. PLoS One. 2014; 9: e105617.

Ren Z, Luo H,Yu Z, Song J, Liang L,Wang L, et al. A Randomized, Open-label, Controlled Clinical Trial of Azvudine Tablets in the Treatment of Mild and Common COVID-19, A Pilot Study. Advanced Science. 2020: 2001435.

Frampton JE, Croom KF. Efavirenz/Emtricitabine/Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate. Drugs. 2006; 66: 1501-12.

De Clercq E. Anti-HIV drugs: 25 compounds approved within 25 years after the discovery of HIV. International journal of antimicrobial agents. 2009; 33: 307-20.

CaoB,WangY,WenD,LiuW,WangJ,FanG,etal.Atrialof lopinavir–ritonavir in adults hospitalized with severe Covid- 19. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020.

Lim J, Jeon S, Shin HY, Kim MJ, Seong YM, Lee WJ, et al. Case of the index patient who caused tertiary transmission of COVID-19 infection in Korea: the application of lopinavir/ritonavir for the treatment of COVID-19 infected pneumonia monitored by quantitative RT-PCR. Journal of Korean medical science. 2020; 35: e79.

Busse KH, Penzak SR. Darunavir: a second-generation protease inhibitor. American journal of health-system pharmacy. 2007; 64: 1593-602.

Chen J, Xia L, Liu L, Xu Q, Ling Y, Huang D, et al., editors. Antiviral Activity and Safety of Darunavir/Cobicistat for the Treatment of COVID-19. Open forum infectious diseases; 2020: Oxford University Press US.

De Clercq E. Antiviral drugs in current clinical use. Journal of clinical virology. 2004; 30: 115-33.

Lewis II JS, Terriff CM, Coulston DR, Garrison MW. Protease inhibitors: a therapeutic breakthrough for the treatment of patients with human immunodeficiency virus. Clinical therapeutics. 1997; 19: 187-214.

Yamamoto N, Yang R, Yoshinaka Y, Amari S, Nakano T, Cinatl J, et al. HIV protease inhibitor nelfinavir inhibits replication of SARS-associated coronavirus. Biochemical and

biophysical research communications. 2004; 318: 719-25. 42. Rossignol J-F. Nitazoxanide, a new drug candidate for the treatment of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Journal of infection and public health. 2016; 9: 227-30.

Published
2020-12-23