Effective drugs used to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection and the current status of vaccines

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a causal factor of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Drug repurposing, portraying patented drugs as a successful drug development technique, could shorten the period and minimize costs relative to de novo drug exploration. Recently several drugs have been used as anti-SARS-CoV-2 such as Remdesivir, Favipiravir, Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Nafamostat mesylate and so on. Despite such efforts, there is currently no successful broad-spectrum antiviral countermeasures to combat SARS-CoV-2 or possibly potential CoVs pandemic. Therefore it is desperately important to recognize and test widely efficient, reliable anti-CoV therapies now and in the future. Remdesivir and Favipiravir were more promising despite having side effects; it had prominent efficacy and efficiency while still not yet approved as the official anti-viral drug for SARS CoV-2. In this review, we summarizes the current drug and vaccine discovery status against SARS-CoV-2, predicting that these efforts will help create effective drugs and vaccines for SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; Favipiravir; Remdesivir; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccines.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Chemical structures of drugs used to fight SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Fig. 2

Remdesivir's possible mechanism of action against the replication of coronavirus. It also indicates the proposed binding pocket of RdRp polymerase on the right in a 3D structure. SARS-CoV-2 genomic organization, showing the coding regions for proteins that are possible targets for drugs [46]. This mechanism of action could be used for Favipiravir as well.

Fig. 3

Potential mechanisms of action against replication of coronavirus, viral assembly, and viral budding by Hydroxychloroquine. By interfering with endosome-mediated viral entry or the late replication stages of enveloped viruses, Hydroxychloroquine can inhibit many viruses' replication [76,77]. For Azithromycin, this mechanism of action may also be used.

Fig. 4

Lopinavir/Ritonavir potential repurposed drug candidate for SARS-CoV-2. The 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) enzyme has a vital function in viral RNA processing. Since Lopinavir/Ritonavir is a protease inhibitor, the action of 3CLpro could be inhibited, thus preventing the process of viral replication and host cell release [91].