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Candidates were screened for their similarity to hydroxychloroquine and their efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 was evaluated. in vitro.
Researchers have identified three drugs approved for human use that could be reused as therapies for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Based on your virtual and in vitro Antiviral screening, the team suggests that zuclopenthixol, nebivolol, and amodiaquine could be promising therapies during the early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
According to the team, they identified potential candidates using a virtual screen looking for structures similar to hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug that is most frequently studied in clinical trials for use as a COVID-19 therapeutic. The library they examined contained more than 4,000 approved drugs. The most similarly structured candidates underwent a in vitro antiviral evaluation. Among the selected drugs, both zuclopenthixol and nebivolol effectively blocked SARS-CoV-2 infection, and ambroxol, amodiaquine, and its active metabolite (north-monodesethylamodiaquine) all showed anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity as well.
For safety reasons, the team concluded that zuclopenthixol (an antipsychotic), nebivolol (a blood pressure drug), and amodiaquine (an older antimalarial) were the most promising candidates for clinical trials.
The team suggested that these drugs could be used as adjuncts to current COVID-19 treatments (such as remdesivir) to increase their effectiveness. Remdesivir is an antiviral that has been authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration for emergency use as a therapeutic for COVID-19.
the in vitro The experiments were led at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center (UTHSC), USA, by Dr. Colleen Jonsson, Professor and Van Vleet Chair of Excellence in Virology at the UTHSC School of Medicine. . He also directs UTHSC’s Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL), one of about a dozen federally funded laboratories authorized to safely study contagious pathogens.
Dr. Jonsson concluded, “This is a very exciting discovery, we are monitoring the potential use of zuclopenthixol, nebivolol and amodiaquine in additional research studies.”
The article was published in Pharmacology and Translational Science ACS.
