Approaching Coronavirus Disease 2019: mechanisms of action of repurposed drugs with potential activity against SARS-CoV-2.

Approaching Coronavirus Disease 2019: mechanisms of action of repurposed drugs with potential activity against SARS-CoV-2. Biochem Pharmacol. 2020 Jul 22;:114169 Authors: Lisi L, Lacal PM, Barbaccia ML, Graziani G Abstract On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) a global pandemic. As of July 2020, SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 14 million people and provoked more than 590,000 deaths, worldwide. From the beginning, a variety of pharmacological treatments has been empirically used to cope with the life-threatening complications associated with Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Thus far, only a couple of them and not consistently across reports have been shown to further decrease mortality, respect to what can be achieved with supportive care. In most cases, and due to the urgency imposed by the number and severity of the patients' clinical conditions, the choice of treatment has been limited to repurposed drugs, approved for other indications, or investigational agents used for other viral infections often rendered available on a compassionate-use basis. The rationale for drug selection was mainly, though not exclusively, based either i) on the activity against other coronaviruses or RNA viruses in order to potentially hamper viral entry and replication in the epithelial cells of the airways, and/or ii) on the ability to modulate t...
Source: Biochemical Pharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Biochem Pharmacol Source Type: research