Metal Complexes as Antiviral Agents for SARS‐CoV‐2

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome – coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), the infectious agent responsible for COVID‐19 – has caused more than 2.5 million deaths worldwide and triggered a global pandemic. Even with successful vaccines being delivered, there is an urgent need for novel treatments to combat SARS‐CoV‐2, and other emerging viral diseases. While several organic small molecule drug candidates are in development, some effort has also been devoted towards the application of metal complexes as potential antiviral agents against SARS‐CoV‐2. Herein, the metal complexes that have been reported to show antiviral activity against SARS‐CoV‐2 or one of its target proteins are described and their proposed mechanisms of action are discussed.

Synthesis, characterization, antioxidant, antileishmanial, anticancer, DNA and theoretical SARS-CoV-2 interaction studies of copper(II) carboxylate complexes

“…The apical nitrogen donor ligands normally saturate the coordination spheres of the copper centers and thereby result in the commonly observed discrete di-nuclear molecular units [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] . Less common polymeric paddlewheel structures may result in cases where carboxylates act as bridging bidentate ligands in the apical positions [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] . The formation of di- or polymeric structures may be attributed mainly to both steric as well as electronic effects of the employed ligands.…”

Facing Diseases Caused by Trypanosomatid Parasites: Rational Design of Pd and Pt Complexes With Bioactive Ligands

“…However, the discovery of the potent anti-tumor activity of cisplatin, [PtCl 2 (NH 3 ) 2 ] determined the beginning of the modern era of Medicinal inorganic chemistry, accompanied by a huge impact of metal compounds in modern medicine. By exploiting the unique properties of metal ions, Medicinal inorganic chemistry currently offers an attractive option for the rational design of new drugs, looking for defined targets and activities, and new diagnostic and theranostic tools (Zhang and Sadler, 2017;Hanif and Hartinger, 2018;Englinger et al, 2019;Kostelnik and Orvig, 2019;Soldevila-Barreda and Metzler-Nolte, 2019;WahsnerGale et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019;Anthony et al, 2020;Chamberlain et al, 2020;Chellan and Sadler, 2020;Imberti et al, 2020;Murray and Dyson, 2020;Cirri et al, 2021;Karges and Cohen, 2021;Lin et al, 2021;Silva et al, 2021;Yousuf et al, 2021). In the last decades, the development of metal-based drugs has proven to be a promising approach in the search for new therapeutic tools against parasitic diseases.…”

Combination of chemistry and material science to overcome health problems

“…Various governmental institutions and pharmaceutical companies around the world have invested huge financial resources into the drug development of novel compounds/drug formulations. [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] …”