Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Feb;14(2):214-220.
doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2020.12.009. Epub 2020 Dec 15.

The growing complexity of COVID-19 drug and vaccine candidates: challenges and critical transitions

Mohammad Hossain Shariare  1 , Md Anowar Khasru Parvez  2 , George A Karikas  3 , Mohsin Kazi  4
Affiliations
Review

The growing complexity of COVID-19 drug and vaccine candidates: challenges and critical transitions

Mohammad Hossain Shariare et al. J Infect Public Health. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

COVID-19 has nowadays affected almost all our societies and global health systems. The latest deadly pandemic has heavily influenced both life and livelihood worldwide. SARS-CoV-2 is the causative organism of COVID-19, that is spreading and infecting significantly higher compared to other coronavirus, due to its constant mutation characteristics. At present although several extensive clinical trials are ongoing, neither approved drug therapy nor any vaccine are available to safely fight SARS-CoV-2. However, a progressive race among numerous research groups to discover a radical cure for the COVID-19 is under way. This review aims to provide an updated insight of the current research, development and trials on repurposing existing drugs and preventive intervention for COVID-19, along with the related issues, complexities and challenges, especially after the observed high transmissibility lately.

Keywords: COVID-19; Computational docking; Drug repurposing; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
COVID-19 host cell factors (receptors): ACE2 and TMPRSS2.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
COVID-19 spike protein (S1, S2 subunits).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wang C., Horby P.W., Hayden F.G., Gao G.F. A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern. The Lancet. 2020;395(10223):470–473. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhu N., Zhang D., Wang W., Li X., Yang B., Song J., Zhao X., Huang B., Shi W., Lu R. China Novel Coronavirus Investigating and Research Team. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(8):727–733. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu Y., Gayle A.A., Wilder-Smith A., Rocklöv J. The reproductive number of COVID-19 is higher compared to SARS coronavirus. Journal of travel medicine. 2020 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gates B. Responding to Covid-19—a once-in-a-century pandemic? New England Journal of Medicine. 2020;382(18):1677–1679. - PubMed
    1. Lu R., Zhao X., Li J., Niu P., Yang B., Wu H., Wang W., Song H., Huang B., Zhu N. Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding. The Lancet. 2020;395(10224):565–574. - PMC - PubMed