Drug repositioning against COVID-19: a first line treatment

Determining similarities of COVID-19 - lung cancer drugs and affinity binding mode analysis by graph neural network-based GEFA method

COVID-19 is a worldwide health crisis seriously endangering the arsenal of antiviral and antibiotic drugs. It is urgent to find an effective antiviral drug against pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars-Cov-2), which increases global health concerns. As it can be expensive and time-consuming to develop specific antiviral drugs, reuse of FDA-approved drugs that provide an opportunity to rapidly distribute effective therapeutics can allow to provide treatments with known preclinical, pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and toxicity profiles that can quickly enter in clinical trials. In this study, using the structural information of molecules and proteins, a list of repurposed drug candidates was prepared again with the graph neural network-based GEFA model. The data set from the public databases DrugBank and PubChem were used for analysis. Using the Tanimoto/jaccard similarity analysis, a list of similar drugs was prepared by comparing the drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19 with the drugs used in the treatment of other diseases. The resultant drugs were compared with the drugs used in lung cancer and repurposed drugs were obtained again by calculating the binding strength between a drug and a target. The kinase inhibitors (erlotinib, lapatinib, vandetanib, pazopanib, cediranib, dasatinib, linifanib and tozasertib) obtained from the study can be used as an alternative for the treatment of COVID-19, as a combination of blocking agents (gefitinib, osimertinib, fedratinib, baricitinib, imatinib, sunitinib and ponatinib) such as ABL2, ABL1, EGFR, AAK1, FLT3 and JAK1, or antiviral therapies (ribavirin, ritonavir-lopinavir and remdesivir).Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Are the Current Processes and Regulations Fit for Purpose to Deliver Novel Therapies During Pandemics? A Perspective on COVID-19 from the UK

The COVID-19 pandemic was the first ‘stress test’ to assess whether the current regulations in the United Kingdom (UK) are fit for purpose to develop novel therapies during pandemics. It saw innovations and collaborations across the spectrum of the drug development and regulatory pathways, including extraordinary collaborations between the various stakeholders involved in the process, the repositioning of medicines, the deployment of multi-arm, multi-interventional adaptive trials, the institution of operational simplicity and flexibility across various trial activities, and regulatory innovations. The question arises whether the innovative flexibilities and the urgency that were instituted could have resulted in compromises to the integrity of the process. An assessment of the conduct of the RECOVERY trial and the speedy approval of dexamethasone by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency demonstrates that no compromises were made to the ethical and scientific integrity of the process. Lessons learnt could be applied for future pandemics and to enhance R&D productivity and contribute to global health by improving access to medicines, especially in low- and middle-income countries and for neglected or rare diseases. What is needed is not a major transformation in the process but the flexible adaptation of existing regulations to reduce bureaucracy and handover times. Arriving at an optimal balance between scientific standards, regulations and commercial conflicts of interest will pose considerable challenges but what the COVID-19 pandemic has shown is that where there is will, there is always a way.

Dopamine Reduces SARS-CoV-2 Replication In Vitro through Downregulation of D2 Receptors and Upregulation of Type-I Interferons

Recent evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 hinders immune responses via dopamine (DA)-related mechanisms. Nonetheless, studies addressing the specific role of DA in the frame of SARS-CoV-2 infection are still missing. In the present study, we investigate the role of DA in SARS-CoV-2 replication along with potential links with innate immune pathways in CaLu-3 human epithelial lung cells. We document here for the first time that, besides DA synthetic pathways, SARS-CoV-2 alters the expression of D1 and D2 DA receptors (D1DR, D2DR), while DA administration reduces viral replication. Such an effect occurs at non-toxic, micromolar-range DA doses, which are known to induce receptor desensitization and downregulation. Indeed, the antiviral effects of DA were associated with a robust downregulation of D2DRs both at mRNA and protein levels, while the amount of D1DRs was not significantly affected. While halting SARS-CoV-2 replication, DA, similar to the D2DR agonist quinpirole, upregulates the expression of ISGs and Type-I IFNs, which goes along with the downregulation of various pro-inflammatory mediators. In turn, administration of Type-I IFNs, while dramatically reducing SARS-CoV-2 replication, converges in downregulating D2DRs expression. Besides configuring the CaLu-3 cell line as a suitable model to study SARS-CoV-2-induced alterations at the level of the DA system in the periphery, our findings disclose a previously unappreciated correlation between DA pathways and Type-I IFN response, which may be disrupted by SARS-CoV-2 for host cell invasion and replication.

COVID-19 at a Glance: An Up-to-Date Overview on Variants, Drug Design and Therapies

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a member of the Coronavirus family which caused the worldwide pandemic of human respiratory illness coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Presumably emerging at the end of 2019, it poses a severe threat to public health and safety, with a high incidence of transmission, predominately through aerosols and/or direct contact with infected surfaces. In 2020, the search for vaccines began, leading to the obtaining of, to date, about twenty COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in at least one country. However, COVID-19 continues to spread and new genetic mutations and variants have been discovered, requiring pharmacological treatments. The most common therapies for COVID-19 are represented by antiviral and antimalarial agents, antibiotics, immunomodulators, angiotensin II receptor blockers, bradykinin B2 receptor antagonists and corticosteroids. In addition, nutraceuticals, vitamins D and C, omega-3 fatty acids and probiotics are under study. Finally, drug repositioning, which concerns the investigation of existing drugs for new therapeutic target indications, has been widely proposed in the literature for COVID-19 therapies. Considering the importance of this ongoing global public health emergency, this review aims to offer a synthetic up-to-date overview regarding diagnoses, variants and vaccines for COVID-19, with particular attention paid to the adopted treatments.