Potential metal-related strategies for prevention and treatment of COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has posed severe threats to human health, public safety, and the global economy. Metal nutrient elements can directly or indirectly take part in human immune responses, and metal-related drugs have served as antiviral drugs and/or enzyme inhibitors for many years, providing potential solutions to the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Metal-based drugs are currently under a variety of chemical structures and exhibit wide-range bioactivities, demonstrating irreplaceable advantages in pharmacology. This review is an intention to summarize recent progress in the prevention and treatment strategies against COVID-19 from the perspective of metal pharmacology. The current and potential utilization of metal-based drugs is briefly introduced. Specifically, metallohydrogels that have been shown to present superior antiviral activities are stressed in the paper as potential drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. Graphic abstract

Interaction of copper potential metallodrugs with TMPRSS2: A comparative study of docking tools and its implications on COVID-19

“…Currently, most efforts are focused on antibodies, organic molecules, or already approved drugs for other diseases, such as chloroquine, favipiravir, remdesivir, molnupiravir, nirmatrevir, paxlovid ( Akhtar, 2020 ), or the M pro inhibitor in phase 3 trial, S-217622 (ensitrelvir) ( Sasaki et al, 2022 ). As an alternative, metal-based compounds have also been explored as anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents ( Cirri et al, 2021 ; Gil-Moles et al, 2021 ; Karges and Cohen, 2021 ; Vlasiou and Pafti, 2021 ; Li et al, 2022 ; Ni et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Until December 2022, SARS-CoV-2 and its variants have almost infected 650 million people worldwide, and 6.6 million people have died as a result ( Dong et al, 2020 ; World Health Organization, 2022 ). Even though effective drugs have not been found yet, the disease has been treated with antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs, antibodies, corticosteroids, and plasma from people who have recovered from the disease ( Ni et al, 2022 ).…”

“…In searching for safe and effective drugs to treat the COVID-19 pandemic disease, metallodrugs, widely used in medicine, could be good candidates because coordination compounds have unique reactivity properties that cannot be achieved using only organic compounds ( Cirri et al, 2021 ). Some metal ions, including selenium, iron, zinc, and copper, are known to block the interaction between the virus and the host cell, preventing the infection, inhibiting viral replication, destroying the viral structure, or inhibiting the activity of critical enzymes ( Ni et al, 2022 ). In this regard, Casiopeinas ® are well-known planar copper(II) compounds with phenanthroline or bipyridine ligands.…”

Metal-Based Compounds in Antiviral Therapy

“…Metal compounds play an important role acting in many ways: they can interrupt infections, alleviate symptoms, regulate the human immune system, inhibit critical enzymes in the process of virus replication, or as act adjuvants to enhance the efficacy of antiviral drugs and vaccines [ 8 , 9 ], as shown in Figure 1 .…”