RESUMO
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected a large portion of the global population, both physically and mentally. Current evidence suggests that the rapidly evolving coronavirus subvariants risk rendering vaccines and antibodies ineffective due to their potential to evade existing immunity, with enhanced transmission activity and higher reinfection rates that could lead to new outbreaks across the globe. The goal of viral management is to disrupt the viral life cycle as well as to relieve severe symptoms such as lung damage, cytokine storm, and organ failure. In the fight against viruses, the combination of viral genome sequencing, elucidation of the structure of viral proteins, and identifying proteins that are highly conserved across multiple coronaviruses has revealed many potential molecular targets. In addition, the time- and cost-effective repurposing of preexisting antiviral drugs or approved/clinical drugs for these targets offers considerable clinical advantages for COVID-19 patients. This review provides a comprehensive overview of various identified pathogenic targets and pathways as well as corresponding repurposed approved/clinical drugs and their potential against COVID-19. These findings provide new insight into the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies that could be applied to the control of disease symptoms emanating from evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants.
RESUMO
The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is an ongoing infection outbreak caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel positive single-stranded, enveloped RNA virus belonging to the genus Betacoronavirus. During the pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 subvariants evolved rapidly with enhanced transmissibility, and became a global public health threat as its alarmingly rising rate of infection led to excessive mortality. According to the WHO data, COVID-19 caused more than 6 million deaths and affected 215 countries. Although vaccines are beneficial for preventing hospitalization, reducing severe illness and deaths from COVID-19, the constantly mutated Spike protein under high selection pressure leading to off-target or immune evasion which warrants additional therapeutic strategies. Therefore, it is important to identify and test potential therapeutic targets against proteins that are highly conserved among multiple coronaviruses for clinical drug development to combat SARS-COV-2. While research for new therapies continues, the cost-effective and rapid repurposing of existing therapeutics may provide a viable treatment alternative for COVID-19.
