Overview of Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused the ongoing pandemic named COVID-19 which causes a serious emergency on public health hazards of international concern. In the face of a critical medical emergency, repositioning of drugs is one of the most authentic options to design an adequate treatment for infected patients immediately. In this strategy, Remdesivir (Veklury), Hydroxychloroquine appears to be the drug of choice and garnered unprecedented attention as potential therapeutic agents against the pandemic realized worldwide due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. These are the breathtaking instances of possible repositioning of drugs, whose pharmacokinetics and optimal dosage are familiar. In this review, we provide an overview of these medications, their synthesis, and the possible mechanism of action against SARS-CoV-2.

Transition-Metal-Free Transfer Hydrogenative Cascade Reaction of Nitroarenes with Amines/Alcohols: Redox-Economical Access to Benzimidazoles.

This report describes an efficient transition-metal-free process toward the transfer hydrogenative cascade reaction between nitroarenes and amines or alcohols. The developed redox-economical approach was realized using a combination of KOtBu and Et3SiH as reagents, which allows the synthesis of benzimidazole derivatives via σ-bond metathesis. The reaction conditions hold well over a wide range of substrates embedded with diverse functional groups to deliver the desired products in good to excellent yields. The mechanistic proposal has been depicted on the basis of a series of control experiments, mass spectroscopic evidence which is well supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations with a feasible energy profile.