Saquinavir: From HIV to COVID-19 and Cancer Treatment.
Biomolecules
; 12(7)2022 07 05.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1917277
ABSTRACT
Saquinavir was the first protease inhibitor developed for HIV therapy, and it changed the standard of treatment for this disease to a combination of drugs that ultimately led to increased survival of this otherwise deadly condition. Inhibiting the HIV protease impedes the virus from maturing and replicating. With this in mind, since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the research for already approved drugs (mainly antivirals) to repurpose for treatment of this disease has increased. Among the drugs tested, saquinavir showed promise in silico and in vitro in the inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (3CLpro). Another field for saquinavir repurposing has been in anticancer treatment, in which it has shown effects in vitro and in vivo in several types of cancer, from Kaposi carcinoma to neuroblastoma, demonstrating cytotoxicity, apoptosis, inhibition of cell invasion, and improvement of radiosensibility of cancer cells. Despite the lack of follow-up in clinical trials for cancer use, there has been a renewed interest in this drug recently due to COVID-19, which shows similar pharmacological pathways and has developed superior in silico models that can be translated to oncologic research. This could help further testing and future approval of saquinavir repurposing for cancer treatment.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
HIV Infections
/
HIV Protease Inhibitors
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
/
Neoplasms
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Biom12070944
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