COVID‐19 drug repurposing: A review of computational screening methods, clinical trials, and protein interaction assays

• Published in: Medicinal Research Reviews Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 5 - 28
• Main Authors: Wang, Xueqing, Guan, Yuanfang
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2021; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: clinical trial; Clinical trials; Clinical Trials as Topic; Computational Biology - methods; computational research; COVID-19; COVID-19 - drug therapy; Drug development; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical - methods; Drug Repositioning; drug repurposing; Humans; in vitro protein interaction assay; Protein Interaction Maps; COVID-19; clinical trial; drug repurposing; in vitro protein interaction assay; computational research
• ISSN: 0198-6325; 1098-1128
• DOI: 10.1002/med.21728

The situation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic is rapidly evolving, and medical researchers around the globe are dedicated to finding cures for the disease. Drug repurposing, as an efficient way for drug development, has received a lot of attention. However, the huge amount of studies makes it challenging to keep up to date with the literature on COVID‐19 therapeutic development. This review addresses this challenge by grouping the COVID‐19 drug repurposing research into three large groups, including clinical trials, computational research, and in vitro protein‐binding experiments. Particularly, to facilitate future drug discovery and the creation of effective drug combinations, drugs are organized by their mechanisms of action and reviewed by their efficacy measured by clinical trials. Providing this subtyping information, we hope this review would serve the scientists, clinicians, and the pharmaceutical industry who are looking at the new therapeutics for COVID‐19 treatment.