Repurposing clinical drugs is a promising strategy to discover drugs against Zika virus infection / 医学前沿

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging pathogen associated with neurological complications, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults and microcephaly in fetuses and newborns. This mosquito-borne flavivirus causes important social and sanitary problems owing to its rapid dissemination. However, the development of antivirals against ZIKV is lagging. Although various strategies have been used to study anti-ZIKV agents, approved drugs or vaccines for the treatment (or prevention) of ZIKV infections are currently unavailable. Repurposing clinically approved drugs could be an effective approach to quickly respond to an emergency outbreak of ZIKV infections. The well-established safety profiles and optimal dosage of these clinically approved drugs could provide an economical, safe, and efficacious approach to address ZIKV infections. This review focuses on the recent research and development of agents against ZIKV infection by repurposing clinical drugs. Their characteristics, targets, and potential use in anti-ZIKV therapy are presented. This review provides an update and some successful strategies in the search for anti-ZIKV agents are given.

New use of old drugs in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

Recently, pneumonia caused by 2019 new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbroke in Wuhan, China, which has threatened people's health and lives and enormously influenced the people's daily life in China. However, there are currently no specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs with explicit therapeutic efficacy. Some clinical drugs, which have been shown certain inhibitory activities for SARS-CoV-2 in vitro or have previously been reported to inhibit coronavirus infection, have been applied for clinical trials or tentative treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. From the perspective of exploring the new use of old drugs, this review mainly introduces characteristics, including mechanisms of action, in vitro antiviral effects and side effects, and research progress of these drugs, hoping to provide referential ideas for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.

Pharmaceutical Evaluation Factors of Clinical Drugs / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE: To lay a basis on constructing theory and method of the pharmaceutical evaluation.METHODS: By synthesizing the literature and experience,the authors summarized and explained the pharmaceutical evaluation factors which included rationality of preparations,quality controllability,and delivery efficacy etc.RESULTS: The factors of rationality of preparations included the choice of dosage form,specification and package amount;the factors of quality controllability included active constituent,foreign matter,package and stability,and the factors of delivery efficacy included dissolution or releasing degree and device packaging,CONCLUSION: This system of evaluation factors is systematic,dynamic and practical.