Drug repurposing for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) treatment

Drug repurposing involves the process of investigating already existing drugs with an aim to use them for different therapeutic purposes than the intended one. This approach is relatively faster, less costly, and reliable in terms of safety as the drug under study is already derisked and known for its other chemistry and pharmacokinetic properties. With these benefits in mind, it is a very reliable way to undertake drug development for emerging diseases such as COVID-19 which demand immediate interventions to slow or completely stop its havoc on mankind. One of the biggest challenges that drug repurposing has is the possibility of the occurrence of new mechanisms of action between the drug ligand and some proteins in the human physiology. Drug repurposing appears to have settled in the meantime in drug development, though more studies in the future will be warranted particularly in regards to resistance. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Drug Repurposing Approaches to Combating Viral Infections.

Development of novel antiviral molecules from the beginning costs an average of $350 million to $2 billion per drug, and the journey from the laboratory to the clinic takes about 10-15 years. Utilization of drug repurposing approaches has generated substantial interest in order to overcome these drawbacks. A drastic reduction in the failure rate, which otherwise is ~92%, is achieved with the drug repurposing approach. The recent exploration of the drug repurposing approach to combat the COVID-19 pandemic has further validated the fact that it is more beneficial to reinvestigate the in-practice drugs for a new application instead of designing novel drugs. The first successful example of drug repurposing is zidovudine (AZT), which was developed as an anti-cancer agent in the 1960s and was later approved by the US FDA as an anti-HIV therapeutic drug in the late 1980s after fast track clinical trials. Since that time, the drug repurposing approach has been successfully utilized to develop effective therapeutic strategies against a plethora of diseases. Hence, an extensive application of the drug repurposing approach will not only help to fight the current pandemics more efficiently but also predict and prepare for newly emerging viral infections. In this review, we discuss in detail the drug repurposing approach and its advancements related to viral infections such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

[COVID-19: new challenges for medical science and practical health].

Currently, due to the wide spread of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 and the need for anti-epidemic measures, medical science should integrate all efforts to ensure, on the one hand, at the global level - the fight against the spread of infection, on the other hand, at the individual level - increasing the adaptive capacity and immune response of the organism to protect against COVID-19. Nutrition is the most important factor determining human health and the functioning of all mechanisms to protect a person from negative environmental factors. For the prevention and treatment of new coronavirus infection COVID-19, a significant role is played by the correction of eating disorders, including vitamin and micronutrient deficiency. Federal Research Centre of Nutrition and Biotechnology, together with Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor), prepared Recommendations on nutrition for children and adults, requiring a self-isolation regime or quarantine at home in connection with COVID-19. In order to promptly inform and advise the population on nutrition optimization in the early days of anti-epidemic measures, an information reference Contact Center was created and is continuously functioning on the basis of the Federal Research Centre of Nutrition and Biotechnology. Equally important is the implementation of measures aimed at the prevention of food contamination with COVID-19 agent. In this regard, the Federal Research Centre of Nutrition and Biotechnology, together with Rospotrebnadzor prepared guidelines on measures to prevent the transmission of a new coronavirus infection through foods. Another aspect that the medical community has faced in connection with the pandemic is the need to reorient specialized medical organizations that have not previously worked with patients with infectious diseases in order to create Clinical centers for the treatment of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19. Thus, in the context of the spread of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19, many areas of medicine are involved in the process of providing anti-epidemic measures. Successful completion of the tasks will significantly reduce the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the state and citizens.

A medicinal chemistry perspective of drug repositioning: Recent advances and challenges in drug discovery.

Drug repurposing is a strategy consisting of finding new indications for already known marketed drugs used in various clinical settings or highly characterized compounds despite they can be failed drugs. Recently, it emerges as an alternative approach for the rapid identification and development of new pharmaceuticals for various rare and complex diseases for which lack the effective drug treatments. The success rate of drugs repurposing approach accounts for approximately 30% of new FDA approved drugs and vaccines in recent years. This review focuses on the status of drugs repurposing approach for various diseases including skin diseases, infective, inflammatory, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Efforts have been made to provide structural features and mode of actions of drugs.