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Review
. 2022 Jun 24;10(7):1284.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms10071284.

Antiparasitic Drugs against SARS-CoV-2: A Comprehensive Literature Survey

Estefanía Calvo-Alvarez  1 , Maria Dolci  1 , Federica Perego  1 , Lucia Signorini  1 , Silvia Parapini  2 , Sarah D'Alessandro  3 , Luca Denti  1 , Nicoletta Basilico  1 , Donatella Taramelli  3 , Pasquale Ferrante  1 , Serena Delbue  1
Affiliations
Review

Antiparasitic Drugs against SARS-CoV-2: A Comprehensive Literature Survey

Estefanía Calvo-Alvarez et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

More than two years have passed since the viral outbreak that led to the novel infectious respiratory disease COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Since then, the urgency for effective treatments resulted in unprecedented efforts to develop new vaccines and to accelerate the drug discovery pipeline, mainly through the repurposing of well-known compounds with broad antiviral effects. In particular, antiparasitic drugs historically used against human infections due to protozoa or helminth parasites have entered the main stage as a miracle cure in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. Despite having demonstrated promising anti-SARS-CoV-2 activities in vitro, conflicting results have made their translation into clinical practice more difficult than expected. Since many studies involving antiparasitic drugs are currently under investigation, the window of opportunity might be not closed yet. Here, we will review the (controversial) journey of these old antiparasitic drugs to combat the human infection caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; anthelmintics; antimalarials; antiparasitics; drug repurposing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structures of antiparasitic drugs reported to have anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity and included in this manuscript. Source: PubChem.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mechanisms of action of antiparasitic drugs to interfere with SARS-CoV-2 viral infection at different levels: (a) during the infection cycle of the virus; (b) during the viral attachment to cellular receptors; and (c) as indirect immunomodulatory agents. Created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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