Therapeutic Agents and Vaccines for COVID-19

New Report Highlights Potential Therapeutic Agents and Vaccines for COVID-19

Researchers from CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, have released a special report in which they provide an overview of previously published scientific information on potential therapeutic agents and vaccines for COVID-19, a respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round gold objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The virus shown was isolated from a patient in the U.S. Image credit: NIAID-RML.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease represents a pandemic threat to global public health.

Although the epicenter of the outbreak in December of 2019 was located in Wuhan, China, this disease has spread to more than 100 countries. In addition, millions of people’s lives have been affected as a result of mandatory isolations/quarantines.

The ripple effect of the COVID-19 outbreak could potentially bring major challenges to worldwide health systems and have far-reaching consequences on the global economy if the spread of the virus is not effectively controlled.

SARS-CoV-2 primarily attacks the lower respiratory system to cause viral pneumonia, but it may also affect the gastrointestinal system, heart, kidney, liver and central nervous system.

To assist with research efforts to discover therapies and vaccines for COVID-19, Dr. Cynthia Liu and her colleagues from CAS analyzed the published scientific data on SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses.

The scientists reviewed the rapidly growing body of journal articles related to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2, as well as patents having to do with human coronaviruses.

From the last week of 2019 through March 1, 2020, more than 500 journal articles related to the virus were published electronically or in print, with numbers steadily increasing week-by-week.

Topics included clinical manifestations, treatment regimens, viral structure and mechanisms, antiviral agents, and diagnostics.

To date, more than 500 patents have been issued for vaccines and for therapeutic agents, such as antibodies, cytokines and nucleic acids, that could help prevent or treat coronavirus infections.

Because SARS-CoV-2 is similar to other coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV, the researchers highlighted therapies previously explored for these other viruses that could also be applicable to SARS-CoV-2.

“The information included in the report provides a strong intellectual groundwork for the ongoing development of therapeutic agents and vaccines,” the authors said.

The report was published in the journal ACS Central Science.

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Cynthia Liu et al. Research and Development on Therapeutic Agents and Vaccines for COVID-19 and Related Human Coronavirus Diseases. ACS Cent. Sci, published online March 12, 2020; doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c00272

This article is based on text provided by the American Chemical Society.