During an emergency for public health, the reuse of existing medicines is considered a quick way to potential drugs. Therefore, several companies and academic groups have spent much of the past year looking for COVID-19 drugs in drugs that have already been marketed. Now a research team from China has identified an approved chemotherapy drug as a possible treatment with coronavirus.
Using a combination of computational tools, scientists from the Chinese Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIAT) have shown that Acrotech Biopharma’s Folotyn (pralatrexate), a chemotherapy originally developed to treat lymphoma can be a powerful remedy against SARS. CoV-2, the new coronavirus behind COVID-19.
They found that pralatrexate inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication more strongly than Gilead Sciences’ inhibitor did under the same experimental conditions, according to results published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. Remdesivir, sold as Veklury, has been approved by the FDA for COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital.
Artificial intelligence is widely used in medicine research, and the SIAT team thought that a hybrid approach with deep learning and molecular simulation might be a better solution than one based on a single method.
The team used various AI platforms to examine a library of 1,906 drugs currently on the market for their ability to bind to the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) of the coronavirus. For RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, RdRp is essential for copying the genomic information that enables them to infect and survive cells. Gilead has shown that remdesivir binds to RdRp and interferes with the RNA synthesis of the coronavirus.
The computer model linked four candidates: pralatrexate, antibiotics amoxicillin and azithromycin, and Gilead’s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi (sofosbuvir).
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Two of the drugs – pralatrexate and azithromycin – inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cells. The SIAT researchers conceded that the chemotherapy was linked to several side effects and that its use was limited to an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma called peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Therefore, the drug may have limited clinical use for COVID-19 patients.
Nevertheless, the study supports the use of a hybrid virtual screening to ‘help with drug administration and to facilitate virtual medicine screening against other targets in SARS-CoV-2’, the scientists wrote in the study.
Many artificial intelligence-based medicine screening methods have been applied in COVID-19 medicine for drug reuse. Previous attempts have also pointed to azithromycin as a potential COVID treatment. And a team from the Cleveland Clinic used AI to analyze nearly 27,000 individuals in its COVID-19 registry and found that those using popular sleep aid melatonin were less likely to test positive for the new coronavirus.
One successful example emerging from AI-based research is the identification of BenevolentAI from Eli Lilly’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant as a potential therapy for COVID-19. The JAK inhibitor has obtained FDA emergency approval as a supplement to brake desivir for COVID patients admitted to the hospital in need of oxygen support, after being shown that the combination can reduce recovery time.
The SIAT team is now working on the development of additional calculation methods that they hope will generate new drugs for the treatment of COVID-19, reads a statement.