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Review
. 2020 Jul:157:104859.
doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2020.104859. Epub 2020 Apr 29.

Candidate drugs against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19

Dwight L McKee  1 , Ariane Sternberg  2 , Ulrike Stange  2 , Stefan Laufer  3 , Cord Naujokat  4
Affiliations
Review

Candidate drugs against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19

Dwight L McKee et al. Pharmacol Res. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Outbreak and pandemic of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in 2019/2020 will challenge global health for the future. Because a vaccine against the virus will not be available in the near future, we herein try to offer a pharmacological strategy to combat the virus. There exists a number of candidate drugs that may inhibit infection with and replication of SARS-CoV-2. Such drugs comprise inhibitors of TMPRSS2 serine protease and inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Blockade of ACE2, the host cell receptor for the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 and inhibition of TMPRSS2, which is required for S protein priming may prevent cell entry of SARS-CoV-2. Further, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and off-label antiviral drugs, such as the nucleotide analogue remdesivir, HIV protease inhibitors lopinavir and ritonavir, broad-spectrum antiviral drugs arbidol and favipiravir as well as antiviral phytochemicals available to date may limit spread of SARS-CoV-2 and morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Arbidol; COVID-19; Camostat; Chloroquine; Drugs; Favipiravir; Lopinavir; Phytochemicals; Remdesivir; Ritonavir; SARS-CoV-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest None.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Structural formulas of candidate drugs against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. (A) camostat, (B) nafamostat, (C) chloroquine, (D) hydroxychloroquine, (E) remdesivir (F) lopinavir, (G) ritonavir, (H) umifenovir, (I) favipiravir
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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