COVID-19 treatment: Much research and testing, but far, few magic bullets against SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus
Autor
Kouznetsov, Vladimir V.
Institución
Resumen
The new virus of the of β-Coronaviruses genus, SARS-CoV-2, is the causative agent of coronavirus disease2019 (COVID-19) and is winning a proverbial chess match against all players simultaneous, including
physicians, clinicians, pathologists, doctors, scientists, economists, athletes and politicians. The COVID-19
outbreak has seriously threatened public health, killing the most vulnerable persons and causing general
panic. To stop this disease, effective remedies (i.e., drugs, vaccines, personal protection elements, etc.) are
urgently required. Unfortunately, no registered specific therapies (including antiviral therapies, immunemodulating agents and vaccines) are currently available to treat coronavirus infections, highlighting an urgent
need for therapeutics targeting SARS-CoV-2. In this work, fourteen existing small molecule drugs or/and
experimental drugs selected by experts and examined from the point of view of bioavailability via the
Lipinski-Veber rules and assessment of their physicochemical descriptors. The aim of this study is to discover
selected pattern similarities and peculiar characteristics that could be useful for antiviral drug optimization,
drug combination or new antiviral agent design