Indian Institute of Science Researchers Find 29 Drugs That Could Be Used To Fight CONVID-19

Indian Institute of Science

Researchers at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have identified at least 29 drugs that have the potential of being repurposed to treat COVID-19 patients. “COVID-19 has almost brought normal life to a standstill in most parts of the world. With our research interest on repurposing known drugs/drug candidates targeting various diseases, we decided to analyse the available data on the deadly pathogen,” the team said. The team, comprising Prof Narayanaswamy Srinivasan (leader), Sohini Chakraborti and Sneha Bheemireddy, has identified 29 potential repurpose-able agents that are either approved and/or investigational drugs.

29 potential repurpose-able agents that are either approved and/or investigational drugs have been identified by the team, consisting of Prof Narayanaswamy Srinivasan (leader), Sohini Chakraborti, and Sneha Bheemireddy.

This was achieved using an easy in silico (performed on a computer) strategy based upon the principle of ‘neighborhood behavior’ in 3D space and also 2D space of protein and small molecules respectively.

The team said, “Utilizing this, we found potential drugs/drug prospects which can be repurposed against protein targets encoded by the genome of SARS-CoV-2”. “Based upon our initial analysis, we have actually thus far focused on more than 20 known drugs/drug prospects which may elucidate anti-coronavirus properties by binding to the main protease of the pathogen”. They have additionally identified nine other investigational drug molecules.

These drugs belong to diverse therapeutic areas such as antibacterial, anticancer, antiviral, agents, and so on. The study has been published in the journal ChemRxiv.

The scientists added, “The single objective of making these initial findings openly available to the community is for experimental biologists as well as biomedical scientists to examine our predictions in experimental setups and for medical professionals to assess the capacity of these findings for anti-COVID-19 treatment”.

Especially, besides lots of synthetic molecules, their analysis likewise hints that phytochemicals obtained from vinca plant (vinca alkaloids) as well as from camptotheca tree (camptothecin and its derivatives) have the potential to bind to the major protease of SARS-CoV-2.

The team added, “An in-depth examination of our findings is presently on-going. Our findings should only be used for research objectives as well as we strongly prompt that no individual must interpret these findings for any kind of self-diagnosis or self-medication without prior approval from competent international health/medical regulatory agencies”.