Scientists Find 69 Drugs and Compounds Potentially Effective Against COVID-19

Researchers have identified dozens of drugs and compounds, some experimental and others already approved by health authorities, that may be effective in combating the CCP virus.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, also called SARS-CoV-2, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mishandling allowed the virus to spread throughout China and spark a global pandemic.

In a preprint study not yet peer-reviewed, published on March 22 on bioRxiv, the research team indicated it found hundreds of “high confidence” interactions between SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins and druggable human proteins.

Nearly 70 substances, including both drugs in clinical trials and those already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as preclinical compounds, have the potential to impact the virus, the team found.

“Among these, we identify 66 druggable human proteins or host factors targeted by 69 existing FDA-approved drugs, drugs in clinical trials and/or preclinical compounds, that we are currently evaluating for efficacy in live SARS-CoV-2 infection assays,” the team wrote.

The fact that the human proteins, or host factors, are impacted by existing drugs and experimental compounds makes it more likely to identify “effective molecular targets” that potential antiviral therapeutics based on these drugs or compounds could hit.

“The identification of host dependency factors mediating virus infection may provide key insights into effective molecular targets for developing broadly acting antiviral therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 and other deadly coronavirus strains,” the researchers concluded.

The list includes chloroquine, which kills a parasite that causes malaria. The drug can also interact with a human protein called the sigma-1 receptor, the same one the CCP virus attacks.

President Donald Trump has referred to chloroquine optimistically in terms of potential effectiveness against the virus.

“Unfortunately, the scientific community has little knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection. To illuminate this, we cloned, tagged and expressed 26 of the 29 viral proteins in human cells and identified the human proteins physically associated with each using affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS), which identified 332 high confidence SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Among these, we identify 66 druggable human proteins or host factors targeted by 69 existing FDA-approved drugs, drugs in clinical trials and/or preclinical compounds, that we are currently evaluating for efficacy in live SARS-CoV-2 infection assays. The identification of host dependency factors mediating virus infection may provide key insights into effective molecular targets for developing broadly acting antiviral therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 and other deadly coronavirus strains.”

hmmm. no actual drugs tested ... i assume this MIGHT be useful basic research ...

lots of authors though for some reason:

David E. Gordon, View ORCID ProfileGwendolyn M. Jang, View ORCID ProfileMehdi Bouhaddou, View ORCID ProfileJiewei Xu, View ORCID ProfileKirsten Obernier, View ORCID ProfileMatthew J O’Meara, Jeffrey Z. Guo, View ORCID ProfileDanielle L. Swaney, View ORCID ProfileTia A. Tummino, View ORCID ProfileRuth Huttenhain, View ORCID ProfileRobyn Kaake, View ORCID ProfileAlicia L. Richards, View ORCID ProfileBeril Tutuncuoglu, Helene Foussard, View ORCID ProfileJyoti Batra, View ORCID ProfileKelsey Haas, View ORCID ProfileMaya Modak, View ORCID ProfileMinkyu Kim, View ORCID ProfilePaige Haas, View ORCID ProfileBenjamin J. Polacco, View ORCID ProfileHannes Braberg, Jacqueline M. Fabius, View ORCID ProfileManon Eckhardt, View ORCID ProfileMargaret Soucheray, Melanie Brewer, View ORCID ProfileMerve Cakir, View ORCID ProfileMichael J. McGregor, View ORCID ProfileQiongyu Li, View ORCID ProfileZun Zar Chi Naing, View ORCID ProfileYuan Zhou, Shiming Peng, View ORCID ProfileIlsa T. Kirby, View ORCID ProfileJames E. Melnyk, View ORCID ProfileJohn S Chorba, View ORCID ProfileKevin Lou, View ORCID ProfileShizhong A. Dai, View ORCID ProfileWenqi Shen, View ORCID ProfileYing Shi, View ORCID ProfileZiyang Zhang, View ORCID ProfileInigo Barrio-Hernandez, View ORCID ProfileDanish Memon, View ORCID ProfileClaudia Hernandez-Armenta, View ORCID ProfileChristopher J.P. Mathy, View ORCID ProfileTina Perica, View ORCID ProfileKala B. Pilla, View ORCID ProfileSai J. Ganesan, View ORCID ProfileDaniel J. Saltzberg, View ORCID ProfileRakesh Ramachandran, Xi Liu, View ORCID ProfileSara B. Rosenthal, View ORCID ProfileLorenzo Calviello, View ORCID ProfileSrivats Venkataramanan, View ORCID ProfileYizhu Lin, View ORCID ProfileStephanie A. Wankowicz, View ORCID ProfileMarkus Bohn, View ORCID ProfileRaphael Trenker, View ORCID ProfileJanet M. Young, View ORCID ProfileDevin Cavero, View ORCID ProfileJoe Hiatt, View ORCID ProfileTheo Roth, View ORCID ProfileUjjwal Rathore, View ORCID ProfileAdvait Subramanian, Julia Noack, Mathieu Hubert, Ferdinand Roesch, Thomas Vallet, Björn Meyer, View ORCID ProfileKris M. White, View ORCID ProfileLisa Miorin, View ORCID ProfileDavid Agard, View ORCID ProfileMichael Emerman, View ORCID ProfileDavide Ruggero, View ORCID ProfileAdolfo Garcí-Sastre, View ORCID ProfileNatalia Jura, View ORCID ProfileMark von Zastrow, View ORCID ProfileJack Taunton, View ORCID ProfileOlivier Schwartz, View ORCID ProfileMarco Vignuzzi, View ORCID ProfileChristophe d’Enfert, View ORCID ProfileShaeri Mukherjee, Matt Jacobson, View ORCID ProfileHarmit S. Malik, View ORCID ProfileDanica G Fujimori, View ORCID ProfileTrey Ideker, View ORCID ProfileCharles S Craik, View ORCID ProfileStephen Floor, View ORCID ProfileJames S. Fraser, View ORCID ProfileJohn Gross, View ORCID ProfileAndrej Sali, View ORCID ProfileTanja Kortemme, View ORCID ProfilePedro Beltrao, View ORCID ProfileKevan Shokat, View ORCID ProfileBrian K. Shoichet, View ORCID ProfileNevan J. Krogan

This was a sort of molecular virtual reality trial. It’s what scientists call “in silico” as opposed to in vitro or in vivo. The computer was able to sort through thousands of potential molecules to come up with a short list. It sure beats the Chinese method of trying 1,000 drugs from the pharmacy on tissue samples to see which ones might work. But the Chinese, through brute force, did identify chloroquine as one of the thousand drugs they tried that seemed to work with tissue samples.

The Chinese then went straight to human trials, skipping the animal testing since chloroquine has a good safety profile, and found that it worked.

For the other 68, testing them on infected tissue samples will be next, then animal testing, then finally human testing. Results will likely take months or years.

Unexpected consequences will eliminate most of the candidates.

Some very good news:

*******************************

Successful therapy against Covid-19 virus from New York State:

Dr. Vladimir (Zev) Zelenko

Board Certified Family Practitioner

501 Rt 208, Monroe, NY 10950

845-238-0000

March 23, 2020

To all medical professionals around the world:

My name is Dr. Zev Zelenko and I practice medicine in Monroe, NY. For the last 16 years, I have cared for approximately 75% of the adult population of Kiryas Joel, which is a very close knit community of approximately 35,000 people in which the infection spread rapidly and unchecked prior to the imposition of social distancing.

As of today my team has tested approximately 200 people from this community for Covid-19, and 65% of the results have been positive. If extrapolated to the entire community, that means more than 20,000 people are infected at the present time. Of this group, I estimate that there are 1500 patients who are in the high-risk category (i.e. >60, immunocompromised, comorbidities, etc).

Given the urgency of the situation, I developed the following treatment protocol in the pre-hospital setting and have seen only positive results:

1. Any patient with shortness of breath regardless of age is treated.

2. Any patient in the high-risk category even with just mild symptoms is treated.

3. Young, healthy and low risk patients even with symptoms are not treated (unless their circumstances change and they fall into category 1 or 2).

My out-patient treatment regimen is as follows:

1. Hydroxychloroquine 200mg twice a day for 5 days

2. Azithromycin 500mg once a day for 5 days

3. Zinc sulfate 220mg once a day for 5 days

The rationale for my treatment plan is as follows. I combined the data available from China and South Korea with the recent study published from France (sites available on request). We know that hydroxychloroquine helps Zinc enter the cell. We know that Zinc slows viral replication within the cell. Regarding the use of azithromycin, I postulate it prevents secondary bacterial infections. These three drugs are well known and usually well tolerated, hence the risk to the patient is low.

Since last Thursday, my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another 150 patients in other areas of New York with the above regimen.

Of this group and the information provided to me by affiliated medical teams, we have had ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations. In addition, I have not heard of any negative side effects other than approximately 10% of patients with temporary nausea and diarrhea.

In sum, my urgent recommendation is to initiate treatment in the outpatient setting as soon as possible in accordance with the above. Based on my direct experience, it prevents acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), prevents the need for hospitalization and saves lives.

With much respect,

Dr. Zev Zelenko

cc: President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff

Video at Link

https://matzav.com/watch-kiryas-yoel-dr-zev-zelenko-to-trump-im-seeing-success-with-your-approved-drug/?fbclid=IwAR0gVHAW9kWF-JLRHjzQx9bSFx6jlRgTn9_PpAmaiykXhsVqTE7wJrddS4g

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