Drug discovery to treat COVID-19 two years after its outbreak

Abstract

vaccine, drug, pandemic Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on human health and economic development over the past two years. Therapeutics in combination with vaccines are critical measures to fight the pandemic. The three areas of drug development are blocking the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells, suppressing viral replication inside cells, and regulating the immune system, and important advances have recently been made in those areas. Increasing numbers of neutralizing antibodies and small molecules that show promise have been fully approved or authorized for emergency use, resulting in decreased mortality of patients with COVID-19. The use of therapeutics will have a great impact on formulating and revising public policies to control the pandemic. The pace of lifting of restrictions and economic recovery worldwide will also accelerate in the future. Here, the drugs or agents that have attracted considerable attention and that have led to remarkable progress in the fight against COVID-19 are reviewed

Identification of novel antiviral drug candidates using an optimized SARS-CoV-2 phenotypic screening platform

“…There is an ongoing search for antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2 that can complement the currently available monoclonal antibody preparations and the three approved small-molecule drugs remdesivir, molnupiravir, and nirmatrelvir [Gao & Sun, 2021]. Effective antiviral drugs and drug combinations will be particularly important for immunocompromised individuals, who cannot effectively be protected by vaccination [Gentile & Schiano Moriello, 2022].…”

Isolation of Thioinosine and Butenolides from a Terrestrial Actinomycetes sp. GSCW‐51 and Their in Silico Studies for Potential against SARS‐CoV‐2

“…These results showed that among all the compounds, compound 4 exhibits reasonably good binding energies for both proteins of SARS‐CoV‐2, which are docked to the catalytic sites of M PRO and spike proteins. Additionally, we have performed docking studies for two positive control compounds including Remdesivir and Nirmatrelvir which are well‐known COVID‐19 drug compounds [37] . Nirmatrelvir is very recently approved oral drug as developed by Pfizer, which also an M pro enzyme inhibitor [38] .…”

“…Additionally, we have performed docking studies for two positive control compounds including Remdesivir and Nirmatrelvir which are well-known COVID-19 drug compounds. [37] Nirmatrelvir is very recently approved oral drug as developed by Pfizer, which also an M pro enzyme inhibitor. [38] For comparative purpose, we have performed docking of Remdesivir and Nirmatrelvir under the similar calculation conditions.…”

Baicalein analogues as prospective SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) inhibitors: A dataset of molecular docking-based virtual screening hits

“…Considering the limited approved drugs and the withdrawal of Remdesivir from clinical use for COVID-19, there is an essential need for targeted therapeutics and effective treatment options [ 7 , 8 ]. To address this issue, this study endeavours to utilise molecular docking based virtual screening tool to identify flavonoid hits as prospective anti-COVID-19 agents.…”