Recent advances on potential drug therapies targeting COVID-19 and
related coronaviruses
Abstract
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a large family of viruses responsible for the
severe ill effects on human health. The most severe outbreak includes
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The
COVID-19 poses major challenges to clinical management because no
specific FDA-approved therapy yet to be available. Thus, the existing
therapies are being used for the treatment of COVID-19, which are under
clinical trials and compassionate use, based on in vitro and in silico
studies. In this review, we summarized the potential therapies like
small molecules, bioactive compounds, nucleoside and nucleotide analogs,
peptides, antibodies, natural products, and synthetic compounds
targeting the complex molecular interactions involved in COVID-19. In
this review>230 natural and chemically synthesized drug therapies were
described with their recent advances in research and development being
done in terms of their chemical, structural and functional properties.
Further, provided insights on possible targets for viral cells, viral
proteins, viral replication, and different molecular pathways for the
discovery of novel viral- and host-based therapeutic targets against
SARS-CoV-2.