Small molecules in the race of COVID-19 drug development

Abstract

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, is spreading worldwide, regardless of different continents, increasing the death toll to almost five million, with more than 300 million reported cases. Researchers have been fighting the greatest threats to human civilization. This report provides a glimpse of ongoing small-molecule research on COVID-19 drugs to save millions of lives, which may provide researchers with a better understanding of rigorously investigated therapeutic agents. This report emphasizes the chemical structures and mechanisms of activity along with drug target information for several small molecules, including marketable drugs and agents under investigation.

Keywords:

• Remdesivir
• M^Pro Inhibitors
• COVID-19
• Nirmatrelvir
• Azvudine

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Table 1. Small molecules under study against COVID-19.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.