New use of old drugs in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection

ABSTRACT

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.