New Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Agent Candidates

　A novel human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, emerged in December 2019, and has been spreading rapidly worldwide. Since then, researches have revealed agents including synthetic medicines, traditional medicines and natural products that may have potential efficacy against SARS-CoV-2.^1,2) The three molecules in the figure below are new candidate small molecular anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents and their detailed biological properties are described as follows.

Arbidol Hydrochloride (1)
　Arbidol hydrochloride is a broad-spectrum antiviral agent used in Russia against a number of enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. Arbidol prevents the entry of the virus into the cell and prevents the fusion of the virus with the host cell membrane. In 2020, its anti- SARS-CoV-2 activity was also reported.^2,3)

Cepharanthine (2)
　Cepharanthine is a naturally occurring alkaloid contained in the plant Stephania cepharantha HAYATA which has been widely used as an herb to treat a variety of diseases, and as an antidote against snakes poisons. Recently, it has been reported that combining cepharanthine and nelfinavir enhanced their predicted efficacy to control coronavirus proliferation, including SARS-CoV-2.⁴⁾

Theaflavin (3)
　Theaflavin is a flavonoid with diverse biological activities, including antioxidant, anticancer, and antiviral activities. In 2020, some studies reported that theaflavin may be effective in suppressing the growth of SARS-CoV-2.⁵⁾ In these reports, theaflavin showed potential to bind to RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 viral growth and activity.

*These products are for research purposes only.

References

• 1) Current Status of Drug development against the Novel Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 -Evaluation of therapeutic agents based on scientific evidence-
  • M. Ujike, TCIMAIL, 2020, 184, 2.
• 2) Candidate drugs against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19
  • D. L. McKee, A. Sternberg, U. Stange, S. Laufer, C. Naujokat, Pharmacol. Res. 2020, 157, 104859.
• 3) Arbidol: A potential antiviral drug for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 by blocking trimerization of the spike glycoprotein
  • N. Vankadari, Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents 2020, 56, 105998.
• 4) Multidrug treatment with nelfinavir and cepharanthine against COVID-19
  • H. Ohashi, et al., bioRxiv 2020.
• 5) The potential chemical structure of anti-SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase
  • J. Lung, Y.-S. Lin, Y.-H. Yang, Y.-L. Chou, L.-H. Shu, Y.-C. Cheng, H. T. Liu, C.-Y. Wu, J. Med. Virol. 2020, 92, 693.

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