Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug Candidates
In December 2019, the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified in the province of Wuhan, China. Since then, there have been over 400 million confirmed cases and 5.8 million deaths by COVID-19 r...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Molecules |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/9/2723 |
| _version_ | 1797503764243939328 |
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| author | Liliana Rodrigues Renata Bento Cunha Tatiana Vassilevskaia Miguel Viveiros Celso Cunha |
| author_facet | Liliana Rodrigues Renata Bento Cunha Tatiana Vassilevskaia Miguel Viveiros Celso Cunha |
| author_sort | Liliana Rodrigues |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In December 2019, the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified in the province of Wuhan, China. Since then, there have been over 400 million confirmed cases and 5.8 million deaths by COVID-19 reported worldwide. The urgent need for therapies against SARS-CoV-2 led researchers to use drug repurposing approaches. This strategy allows the reduction in risks, time, and costs associated with drug development. In many cases, a repurposed drug can enter directly to preclinical testing and clinical trials, thus accelerating the whole drug discovery process. In this work, we will give a general overview of the main developments in COVID-19 treatment, focusing on the contribution of the drug repurposing paradigm to find effective drugs against this disease. Finally, we will present our findings using a new drug repurposing strategy that identified 11 compounds that may be potentially effective against COVID-19. To our knowledge, seven of these drugs have never been tested against SARS-CoV-2 and are potential candidates for in vitro and in vivo studies to evaluate their effectiveness in COVID-19 treatment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:55:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c9355bd9930045cb9798705de99bf80c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1420-3049 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:55:00Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Molecules |
| spelling | doaj.art-c9355bd9930045cb9798705de99bf80c2023-11-23T08:48:40ZengMDPI AGMolecules1420-30492022-04-01279272310.3390/molecules27092723Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug CandidatesLiliana Rodrigues0Renata Bento Cunha1Tatiana Vassilevskaia2Miguel Viveiros3Celso Cunha4Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, PortugalGlobal Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, PortugalGlobal Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, PortugalGlobal Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, PortugalGlobal Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, PortugalIn December 2019, the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified in the province of Wuhan, China. Since then, there have been over 400 million confirmed cases and 5.8 million deaths by COVID-19 reported worldwide. The urgent need for therapies against SARS-CoV-2 led researchers to use drug repurposing approaches. This strategy allows the reduction in risks, time, and costs associated with drug development. In many cases, a repurposed drug can enter directly to preclinical testing and clinical trials, thus accelerating the whole drug discovery process. In this work, we will give a general overview of the main developments in COVID-19 treatment, focusing on the contribution of the drug repurposing paradigm to find effective drugs against this disease. Finally, we will present our findings using a new drug repurposing strategy that identified 11 compounds that may be potentially effective against COVID-19. To our knowledge, seven of these drugs have never been tested against SARS-CoV-2 and are potential candidates for in vitro and in vivo studies to evaluate their effectiveness in COVID-19 treatment.https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/9/2723SARS-CoV-2COVID-19drug repurposingcomputer-aided drug discovery |
| spellingShingle | Liliana Rodrigues Renata Bento Cunha Tatiana Vassilevskaia Miguel Viveiros Celso Cunha Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug Candidates Molecules SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 drug repurposing computer-aided drug discovery |
| title | Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug Candidates |
| title_full | Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug Candidates |
| title_fullStr | Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug Candidates |
| title_full_unstemmed | Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug Candidates |
| title_short | Drug Repurposing for COVID-19: A Review and a Novel Strategy to Identify New Targets and Potential Drug Candidates |
| title_sort | drug repurposing for covid 19 a review and a novel strategy to identify new targets and potential drug candidates |
| topic | SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 drug repurposing computer-aided drug discovery |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/9/2723 |
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