Drug repurposing strategies and key challenges for COVID-19 management

Abstract

COVID-19 is a clinical outcome of viral infection emerged due to strain of beta coronavirus which attacks the type-2 pneumocytes in alveoli via angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. There is no satisfactory drug developed against ‘SARS-CoV2’, highlighting an immediate necessity chemotherapeutic repurposing plan COVID-19. Drug repurposing is a method of selection of approved therapeutics for new use and is considered to be the most effective drug finding strategy since it includes less time and cost to obtain treatment compared to the de novo drug acquisition process. Several drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, teicoplanin, darunavir, ritonavir, nitazoxanide, chloroquine, tocilizumab and favipiravir (FPV) showed their activity against ‘SARS-CoV2’ in vitro. This review has emphasized on repurposing of drugs, and biologics used in clinical set up for targeting COVID-19 and to evaluate their pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety with their future aspect. The key benefit of drug repurposing is the wealth of information related to its safety, and easy accessibility. Altogether repurposing approach allows access to regulatory approval as well as reducing sophisticated safety studies.

Keywords:

• SARS-CoV2
• drug repurposing
• pathophysiology
• drug targets
• clinical trials

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DOP) and Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers, Govt of India for providing research facility and financial support. The NIPER-R communication number is NIPER-R/Communication/267.

Author contributions

The manuscript was written through contributions from all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest and disclosures associated with the manuscript.