Reused drugs usually have a faster route to clinical use because they have been shown to be safe in humans A study published by Sandrine belouzard and Jean Dubuisson of the Institut Pasteur in France and their colleagues in the journal PLoS pathogens on May 19 showed that clofoctol may be an effective treatment for sars-cov-2 infection in mice
Although covid-19 vaccines reduce hospitalizations and deaths, they do not control the spread of the virus and therefore require affordable and effective treatment. To date, previous attempts to reuse drugs to treat patients with covid-19 have been unsuccessful. To identify potential antiviral therapies that are effective against covid-19, scientists entered the apteeus drug library, a collection of 1942 approved drugs, to identify molecules that exhibit antiviral activity against sars-cov-2. According to its antiviral effect, the author chose clofofofophene. They tested their hypothesis by measuring the effect of clofoprofol on sars-cov-2 infected mice.
After phenotypic screening of about 2000 drug compounds that have been used or are still in clinical use, clofoprofol was identified as a potential anti sars-cov-2 virus. After in vitro validation of the antiviral activity of clofafol, the compound was confirmed to reduce viral load and inflammation in the humanized mouse model of covid-19.
The researchers found that the viral load of transgenic mice treated with clofaxone decreased, the expression of inflammatory genes decreased, and the pathological changes of lungs decreased. Future research needs to further understand the therapeutic potential of this drug for sars-cov-2 patients, because this research is limited by physiological differences between humans and mice. However, the mice were euthanized two days after treatment, so the longer-term effects of the drug are still unknown.
According to the authors, "the antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties of clofoctol are related to its safety and unique pharmacokinetics, so we have good reasons to propose clofoctol as an affordable candidate for the treatment of patients with covid-19. Finally, the cost of this drug is relatively low, indicating that it is a potential clinical choice for the treatment of patients with covid-19 in a resource poor environment".
Dubuisson added: "the antiviral drugs against sars-cov-2 are in great need. In this study, we screened a drug compound library and found that clofaxone is an antiviral drug against sars-cov-2. We further proved that this compound can reduce the expression of inflammatory genes, reduce lung lesions and reduce virus load in vivo.".