Repurposing Drugs, Ongoing Vaccine, and New Therapeutic Development Initiatives Against COVID-19

Abstract

As the COVID-19 is still growing throughout the globe, a thorough investigation into the specific immunopathology of SARS-CoV-2, its interaction with the host immune system and pathogen evasion mechanism may provide a clear picture of how the pathogen can breach the host immune defenses in elderly patients and patients with comorbid conditions. Such studies will also reveal the underlying mechanism of how children and young patients can withstand the disease better. The study of the immune defense mechanisms and the prolonged immune memory from patients population with convalescent plasma may help in designing a suitable vaccine candidate not only for the current outbreak but also for similar outbreaks in the future. The vital drug candidates, which are being tested as potential vaccines or therapeutics against COVID-19, include live attenuated vaccine, inactivated or killed vaccine, subunit vaccine, antibodies, interferon treatment, repurposing existing drugs, and nucleic acid-based vaccines. Several organizations around the world have fast-tracked the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, and some drugs already went to phase III of clinical trials. Hence, here, we have tried to take a quick glimpse of the development stages of vaccines or therapeutic approaches to treat this deadly disease.

<p>Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in Saudi Arabia: A Web-Based National Survey</p>

“…The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, which is widely referred to as "COVID-19", has been infecting more than 5.5 million over 144 countries. [1][2][3] The pandemic poses a significant threat to the public health system, 3,4 including catastrophic economic consequences around the world. Saudi Arabia has been plagued with several pandemics, including the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.…”

“…5,6 As of 17th October 2020, the virus has rapidly spread in the Kingdom, causing a total of 341,495 laboratory-confirmed cases with 5144 deaths. 7 A vaccine is considered to be the most awaiting intervention 2,4,7 and hundreds of global R&D institutions engaged in unprecedented speed to develop the vaccine [7][8][9][10][11] However, public perception towards COVID-19 vaccine uptake is not available. Numerous studies have shown several factors responsible for vaccine acceptancy when a new vaccine is introduced.…”

Potential approaches to combat COVID-19: a mini-review

“…10 Humanized nano-bodies and human antibodies Attach to or intervene with the biological activity of viral proteins e.g. 3CLpro (cysteine-like protease), PLpro (papain-like protease) and Nsps (non-structural proteins) that are being replicated, hence impeding viral replication and transcription [13,35] 11 Epitope-based vaccine E protein's possible B cell epitopes and Nucleocapsid (N) protein of MERS-CoV can elicit neutralizing antibody reactions and responses of T-cell [17,18] 12 Live-attenuated vaccine Deploying reverse genetic techniques to disable the nonstructural protein 14 exonuclease consequences or remove the SARS envelope protein [19] 13 Antigen-based vaccine RBD-FP fusion protein has been developed that has shown to produce a large titer of antibodies in mice [20] 14 Live-attenuated vaccine Codon deoptimization process on virus is carried out or employed to produce a live-attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine [20,21] 15 mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1273)…”

“…Codagenix Inc. has stated that it is collaborating with India's Serum Institute, Ltd. for producing live-attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine [20]. Codon deoptimization process on virus is carried out or employed to produce a live-attenuated vaccine that is "rationally engineered" [20,21].…”

Quantum Deep Learning Functional Similarities on Remdesivir, Drug Synergies to Treat COVID-19 in Practice.

“…The bromodomains act as a reader in cell growth and a writer in cell cycle progression of histone acetylation that plays important roles in different biological processes including memory formation, replication, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, transcription, DNA repair and and DNA damage response (5). Molecular structure can be determined in heterodox interpretations by solving the time-independent (11) Schrödinger equation: QM methods, (12) vertex prizes and edge costs including ab initio (13) Density Filed Theories (DFT) and semi-empirical in place of the quantum processor and (14) energy among other observables, (15) under simulated (16) error as well as (17) to reposition drugs (18) about bonding may represent the (19) similarities and dissimilarities (20) between drugs and (21) repurposed viral (22) proteins respectively. (23) However, the Schrödinger equation (24) cannot actually be solved for any (25) but a one-data-driven (26) electron system methods (the hydrogen atom), (27) and approximations (28) need to be made.…”