scholarly journals Identification of candidate repurposable drugs to combat COVID-19 using a signature-based approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinead M. O’Donovan ◽  
Ali Imami ◽  
Hunter Eby ◽  
Nicholas D. Henkel ◽  
Justin Fortune Creeden ◽  
...  

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 is more contagious than other coronaviruses and has higher rates of mortality than influenza. Identification of effective therapeutics is a crucial tool to treat those infected with SARS-CoV-2 and limit the spread of this novel disease globally. We deployed a bioinformatics workflow to identify candidate drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. Using an “omics” repository, the Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS), we simultaneously probed transcriptomic signatures of putative COVID-19 drugs and publicly available SARS-CoV-2 infected cell lines to identify novel therapeutics. We identified a shortlist of 20 candidate drugs: 8 are already under trial for the treatment of COVID-19, the remaining 12 have antiviral properties and 6 have antiviral efficacy against coronaviruses specifically, in vitro. All candidate drugs are either FDA approved or are under investigation. Our candidate drug findings are discordant with (i.e., reverse) SARS-CoV-2 transcriptome signatures generated in vitro, and a subset are also identified in transcriptome signatures generated from COVID-19 patient samples, like the MEK inhibitor selumetinib. Overall, our findings provide additional support for drugs that are already being explored as therapeutic agents for the treatment of COVID-19 and identify promising novel targets that are worthy of further investigation.

Author(s):  
Jeeyun Lee ◽  
Adam J. Bass ◽  
Jaffer A. Ajani

Gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) is a global health burden on all societies, and it was the third-leading cause of cancer-related mortality in 2012, causing 723,000 deaths worldwide. The prognosis of patients with metastatic GAC remains poor, with a median overall survival of less than 1 year in patients treated with currently available therapies. A limited number of therapeutic agents is currently available. Recent additions to the armamentarium include trastuzumab and ramucirumab, which have shown some survival advantage when added to cytotoxic(s). Genomic analyses have defined various genotypes of GACs. The novel genomic knowledge can lead to discovery of novel targets and novel therapeutic agents. In this update, we focus on the current genomic data, targeted therapies including immune system modulators, and expand on HER2/neu testing and the use of agents against this target. Several other facets of GAC and its therapy are not to be included in this review but have been discussed elsewhere.


2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 4589-4596 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Weiss ◽  
Peter J. Petersen ◽  
Timothy M. Murphy ◽  
LuAnna Tardio ◽  
Youjun Yang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Novel penem molecules with heterocycle substitutions at the 6 position via a methylidene linkage were investigated for their activities and efficacy as β-lactamase inhibitors. The concentrations of these molecules that resulted in 50% inhibition of enzyme activity were 0.4 to 3.1 nM for the TEM-1 enzyme, 7.8 to 72 nM for Imi-1, 1.5 to 4.8 nM for AmpC, and 14 to 260 nM for a CcrA metalloenzyme. All the inhibitors were more stable than imipenem against hydrolysis by hog and human dehydropeptidases. Piperacillin was combined with a constant 4-μg/ml concentration of each inhibitor for MIC determinations. The combinations reduced piperacillin MICs by 2- to 32-fold for extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains. The MICs for piperacillin-resistant (MIC of piperacillin, >64 μg/ml) strains of Enterobacter spp., Citrobacter spp., and Serratia spp. were reduced to the level of susceptibility (MIC of piperacillin, ≤16 μg/ml) when the drug was combined with 4, 2, or 1 μg of these penem inhibitors/ml. Protection against acute lethal bacterial infections with class A and C β-lactamase- and ESBL-producing organisms in mice was also demonstrated with piperacillin plus inhibitor. Median effective doses were reduced by approximately two- to eightfold compared to those of piperacillin alone when the drug was combined with the various inhibitors at a 4:1 ratio. Pharmacokinetic analysis after intravenous administration of the various inhibitors showed mean residence times of 0.1 to 0.5 h, clearance rates of 15 to 81 ml/min/kg, and volumes of distribution between 0.4 and 2.5 liters/kg. The novel methylidene penem molecules inhibit both class A and class C enzymes and warrant further investigation for potential as therapeutic agents when used in combination with a β-lactam antibiotic.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1705
Author(s):  
Huda R. M. Rashdan ◽  
Mohamed El-Naggar ◽  
Aboubakr H. Abdelmonsef

Thiazoles are important scaffolds in organic chemistry. Biosynthesis of thiazoles is considered to be an excellent target for the design of novel classes of therapeutic agents. In this study, a new series of 2-ethylidenehydrazono-5-arylazothiazoles 5a–d and 2-ethylidenehydrazono-5-arylazo- thiazolones 8a–d were synthesized via the cyclocondensation reaction of the appropriate hydrazonyl halides 4a–d and 7a–d with ethylidene thiosemicarbazide 3, respectively. Furthermore, the thiosemicarbazide derivative 3 was reacted with different bromoacetyl compounds 10–12 to afford the respective thiazole derivatives 13–15. Chemical composition of the novel derivatives was established on bases of their spectral data (FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and mass spectrometry) and microanalytical data. The newly synthesized derivatives were screened for their in vitro anti-hepatic cancer potency using an MTT assay. Moreover, an in silico technique was used to assess the interaction modes of the compounds with the active site of Rho6 protein. The docking studies of the target Rho6 with the newly synthesized fourteen compounds showed good docking scores with acceptable binding interactions. The presented results revealed that the newly synthesized compounds exhibited promising inhibition activity against hepatic cancer cell lines (HepG2).


Author(s):  
Sinead M O’Donovan ◽  
Hunter Eby ◽  
Nicholas D Henkel ◽  
Justin Creeden ◽  
Ali Imami ◽  
...  

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 is more contagious than other coronaviruses and has higher rates of mortality than influenza. As no vaccine or drugs are currently approved to specifically treat COVID-19, identification of effective therapeutics is crucial to treat the afflicted and limit disease spread. We deployed a bioinformatics workflow to identify candidate drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. Using an “omics” repository, the Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS), we simultaneously probed transcriptomic signatures of putative COVID-19 drugs and signatures of coronavirus-infected cell lines to identify therapeutics with concordant signatures and discordant signatures, respectively. Our findings include three FDA approved drugs that have established antiviral activity, including protein kinase inhibitors, providing a promising new category of candidates for COVID-19 interventions.


2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. S92-S93 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Haass ◽  
K. Smalley ◽  
R. Contractor ◽  
K. Sproesser ◽  
M. Herlyn

Author(s):  
Sisir Nandi ◽  
Mohit Kumar ◽  
Mridula Saxena ◽  
Anil Kumar Saxena

Background: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by a new strain (SARS-CoV-2) erupted in 2019. Nowadays, it is a great threat that claims uncountable lives worldwide. There is no specific chemotherapeutics developed yet to combat COVID-19. Therefore, scientists have been devoted in the quest of the medicine that can cure COVID- 19. Objective: Existing antivirals such as ASC09/ritonavir, lopinavir/ritonavir with or without umifenovir in combination with antimalarial chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine have been repurposed to fight the current coronavirus epidemic. But exact biochemical mechanisms of these drugs towards COVID-19 have not been discovered to date. Method: In-silico molecular docking can predict the mode of binding to sort out the existing chemotherapeutics having a potential affinity towards inhibition of the COVID-19 target. An attempt has been made in the present work to carry out docking analyses of 34 drugs including antivirals and antimalarials to explain explicitly the mode of interactions of these ligands towards the COVID-19protease target. Results: 13 compounds having good binding affinity have been predicted towards protease binding inhibition of COVID-19. Conclusion: Our in silico docking results have been confirmed by current reports from clinical settings through the citation of suitable experimental in vitro data available in the published literature.


Author(s):  
Ekta Shirbhate ◽  
Preeti Patel ◽  
Vijay K Patel ◽  
Ravichandran Veerasamy ◽  
Prabodh C Sharma ◽  
...  

: The novel coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), a global pandemic that emerged from Wuhan, China has today travelled all around the world, so far 216 countries or territories with 21,732,472 people infected and 770,866 deaths globally (as per WHO COVID-19 update dated August 18, 2020). Continuous efforts are being made to repurpose the existing drugs and develop vaccines for combating this infection. Despite, to date, no certified antiviral treatment or vaccine prevails. Although, few candidates have displayed their efficacy in in vitro studies and are being repurposed for COVID-19 treatment. This article summarizes synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds displaying potent activity in their clinical experiences or studies against COVID-19 and also focuses on mode of action of drugs being repositioned against COVID-19.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 2867-2874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atteneri López-Arencibia ◽  
Daniel García-Velázquez ◽  
Carmen M. Martín-Navarro ◽  
Ines Sifaoui ◽  
María Reyes-Batlle ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThein vitroactivity of a novel group of compounds, hexaazatrinaphthylene derivatives, against two species ofLeishmaniais described in this study. These compounds showed a significant dose-dependent inhibition effect on the proliferation of the parasites, with 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50s) ranging from 1.23 to 25.05 μM against the promastigote stage and 0.5 to 0.7 μM against intracellular amastigotes. Also, a cytotoxicity assay was carried out to in order to evaluate the possible toxic effects of these compounds. Moreover, different assays were performed to determine the type of cell death induced after incubation with these compounds. The obtained results highlight the potential use of hexaazatrinaphthylene derivatives againstLeishmaniaspecies, and further studies should be undertaken to establish them as novel leishmanicidal therapeutic agents.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document