Researchers have found that that three common antiviral and antimalarial therapeutics may be effective in vitro at targeting replication of SARS-CoV-2 that leads to COVID-19.
"We were looking for compounds that could block the entry of the virus into the cell," says Ana Puhl, senior scientist at Collaborations Pharmaceuticals and co-corresponding author of the research. "We chose these compounds because we know that other antivirals which successfully act against Ebola are also effective inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2."
These drugs were previously proven effective against Ebola and the Marburg virus: tilorone, quinacrine and pyronaridine. The compounds were tested against SARS-CoV-2 in multiple cell lines.
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"In the human-derived cell lines, we found that all three compounds worked similarly to remdesivir, which is currently being used to treat COVID-19," says Frank Scholle, associate professor of biology at NC State and co-author of the research. "However, they were not at all effective in the Vero cells."
"Researchers saw similar results when these compounds were initially tested against Ebola," says Sean Ekins, CEO of Collaborations Pharmaceuticals and co-corresponding author of the research. "They were effective in human-derived cell lines, but not in Vero cells. This is important because Vero cells are one of the standard models used in this type of testing. In other words, different cells lines may have differing responses to a compound. It points to the necessity of testing compounds in many different cell lines to rule out false negatives."
Source: Science Daily
