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Two Hundred Approved Drugs Found to be Effective Against COVID-19

by Saisruthi Sankaranarayanan on Jul 1 2021 4:45 PM

Two Hundred Approved Drugs Found to be Effective Against COVID-19
Around 200 approved drugs that can work against COVID-19 have been identified by scientists. While only 40 of them are currently being tested, all the others remain unlinked to the disease.
"By looking across the board at the thousands of proteins that play some role in SARS-CoV-2 infection - whether actively or as a consequence of infections - we've been able to create a network uncovering the relationship between these proteins," said Professor Tony Kouzarides, lead investigator of the breakthrough research.

The treatment of COVID-19 infection is associated with small molecule and antibody approaches to date.

The Oxford research team used an advanced computational approach using machine learning methods and arrived at a map of proteins related to COVID-19 infection. This included potential host and viral therapeutic targets.

They then virtually screened around 2,000 drugs. Of these, 200 showed high efficacy against COVID-19. Forty drugs in this list have entered clinical trials to date.

Based on the mechanism of action, the drugs were classified into two groups using artificial neural network analysis:

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• Drugs that targeted SARS-CoV-2 replication

• Drugs that targeted host's immune response

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The first set of drugs were tested for their efficacy in cell lines derived from humans and some other mammals. This analysis revealed that two drugs, sulfasalazine (an anti-rheumatic drug) and proguanil (an antimalarial drug), arrested the multiplication of the virus, suggesting their potential use to treat COVID-19.

"We hope this resource of potential drugs will accelerate the development of new drugs against COVID-19. We believe our approach will be useful for responding rapidly to new variants of SARS-CoV2 and other new pathogens that could drive future pandemics," highlighted Kouzarides.

Source-Medindia


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