Department of Internal Medicine, JCHO Hokkaido Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Biosci Trends. 2021 Jan 23;14(6):467-468. doi: 10.5582/bst.2020.03443. Epub 2020 Dec 27.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that struck in late 2019 and early 2020 is a serious threat to human health. Since there are no approved drugs that satisfactorily treat this condition, all efforts at drug design and/or clinical trials are warranted and reasonable. Drug repurposing is a well-known strategy that seeks to deploy existing licensed drugs for newer indications and that provides the quickest possible transition from the bench to the bedside to meet therapeutic needs. At present, several existing licensed drugs such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, methylprednisolone, dexamethasone, and remdesivir have been used because of their potential efficacy in inhibiting COVID-19. Recently, antibiotics such as tetracyclines and macrolides have been reported to be effective against COVID-19. A combination of tetracyclines and macrolides may be a potential treatment for COVID-19 because there are some differences in the mechanism of action of tetracyclines and macrolides.
由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）引起的 COVID-19 大流行是对人类健康的严重威胁。由于没有令人满意的治疗这种疾病的批准药物，因此有必要进行药物设计和/或临床试验。药物再利用是一种众所周知的策略，旨在将现有的许可药物用于新的适应症，并提供从实验室到床边的最快可能过渡，以满足治疗需求。目前，已经使用了几种现有的许可药物，如氯喹、羟氯喹、甲泼尼龙、地塞米松和瑞德西韦，因为它们具有抑制 COVID-19 的潜在功效。最近，据报道，四环素类和大环内酯类抗生素对 COVID-19 有效。四环素类和大环内酯类药物的联合使用可能是 COVID-19 的一种潜在治疗方法，因为四环素类和大环内酯类药物的作用机制存在一些差异。
