Hossain Md Shahadat, Hami Ithmam, Sawrav Md Sad Salabi, Rabbi Md Fazley, Saha Otun, Bahadur Newaz Mohammed, Rahaman Md Mizanur
Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali-3814, Bangladesh.
Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.
Discoveries (Craiova). 2020 Dec 16;8(4):e121. doi: 10.15190/d.2020.18.
SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus strain responsible for the current pandemic of COVID-19, has rendered the entire humanity suffering. Several months have passed since the pandemic has struck. However, the world is still looking for an effective treatment plan to battle the viral infection. The first vaccine just received emergency approval in December 2020 for use in USA and UK. These are excellent news, however, the worldwide distribution of such vaccine, the possibility of virus mutation and the lack of data regarding the long-term effects of such vaccines are a significant concern. In addition, although remdesivir was recently approved by the FDA to be used as a clinical drug against COVID-19, it hasn't stood out yet as a proven form of therapeutics. Such inability to produce a novel therapy has caused enough inconveniences for the affected people worldwide. Repurposing the already available drugs to fight against the virus seems to be a reasonable option amidst such uncertainty. Given the vast collection of potential treatment candidates to be explored against COVID-19, there is a decent chance that a success in this regard will serve the intermediary purpose of clinically treating the infection until a COVID-19 vaccine is widely distributed worldwide and will be able to treat COVID-19 patients that do not adequately respond to vaccines. Such treatments may prove very useful in future coronavirus outbreaks too. Proper research into these repurposing treatments may yield a certain insight into the field of novel treatment production as well. This review study accumulates a relevant set of information about drugs and vaccines against COVID-19, in terms of their repurposing properties and the specific phases of clinical trials they are undergoing across the world. A potential timeline is also suggested to estimate when an effective result can be expected from the ongoing clinical trials for a better anticipation of the drug landscape. This study will hopefully help accelerate investment of resources into development and discovery of drugs and vaccines against the infection.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2），即引发当前新冠疫情的新型冠状病毒毒株，让全人类都饱受折磨。自疫情爆发以来，已经过去了几个月。然而，全世界仍在寻找有效的治疗方案来对抗这种病毒感染。首款疫苗于2020年12月刚刚在美国和英国获得紧急使用批准。这是个好消息，然而，这种疫苗在全球的分发情况、病毒变异的可能性以及关于此类疫苗长期影响的数据缺失都是重大问题。此外，尽管瑞德西韦最近被美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准用作对抗新冠病毒的临床药物，但它尚未成为一种经证实的有效治疗手段。无法研发出新型疗法给全球受影响的人们带来了诸多不便。在这种不确定性中，重新利用现有药物来对抗病毒似乎是一个合理的选择。鉴于有大量潜在的治疗候选药物可供探索用于对抗新冠病毒，在这方面取得成功有很大机会达到临床治疗感染的中间目的，直到新冠疫苗在全球广泛分发并能够治疗对疫苗反应不佳的新冠患者。此类治疗在未来的冠状病毒疫情爆发中可能也会非常有用。对这些重新利用的治疗方法进行恰当研究或许也能在新型治疗药物研发领域带来一定的见解。本综述研究收集了一系列有关对抗新冠病毒的药物和疫苗的相关信息，包括它们的重新利用特性以及在全球范围内正在进行的临床试验的具体阶段。还提出了一个潜在的时间线，以估计何时能从正在进行的临床试验中预期得到有效结果，以便更好地预测药物前景。希望这项研究将有助于加快对对抗该感染的药物和疫苗研发与发现的资源投入。
