COVID-19, the severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was recognized in 2020 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. The efforts of pharmaceutical companies and academia have successfully led to several vaccines against this virus in an unprecedented short period of time. Although vaccines provide protection to healthy people, they could be not effective for immune compromised individuals or those bearing some risky pathological co-morbidities. Additionally, mutations could generate viral variants unaffected by currently available vaccines.
Therefore, new chemotherapeutic agents are urgently needed for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2.
Although huge efforts are being made since 2020 towards the development of new drugs or the repurposing of already approved drugs (to other targets), which would lead to a significant drop in the approval time of these drugs, drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 are not yet a reality. At present, there is a clinical need for direct-acting antivirals targeting SARS-CoV-2 to complement existing therapeutic strategies.
The aim of this Research Topic of Frontiers in Drug Discovery, Anti-infective Agents, is to collect the latest research on the following topics:
• Development of new organic or metal-based chemotherapeutic agents to treat SARS-CoV-2
• Identification of possible drugs for repurposing/repositioning and to provide drug-like hits for lead optimization to yield highly potent antiviral agents capable of coping with single and multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants
• Assessing the advantages and limitations of existing available drugs compared to new drugs to treat SARS-CoV-2
• Examination of drug synergies in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2
Researchers are welcome to submit original research, reviews, perspective articles, or clinical trials on the mentioned above topics.
COVID-19, the severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was recognized in 2020 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. The efforts of pharmaceutical companies and academia have successfully led to several vaccines against this virus in an unprecedented short period of time. Although vaccines provide protection to healthy people, they could be not effective for immune compromised individuals or those bearing some risky pathological co-morbidities. Additionally, mutations could generate viral variants unaffected by currently available vaccines.
Therefore, new chemotherapeutic agents are urgently needed for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2.
Although huge efforts are being made since 2020 towards the development of new drugs or the repurposing of already approved drugs (to other targets), which would lead to a significant drop in the approval time of these drugs, drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 are not yet a reality. At present, there is a clinical need for direct-acting antivirals targeting SARS-CoV-2 to complement existing therapeutic strategies.
The aim of this Research Topic of Frontiers in Drug Discovery, Anti-infective Agents, is to collect the latest research on the following topics:
• Development of new organic or metal-based chemotherapeutic agents to treat SARS-CoV-2
• Identification of possible drugs for repurposing/repositioning and to provide drug-like hits for lead optimization to yield highly potent antiviral agents capable of coping with single and multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants
• Assessing the advantages and limitations of existing available drugs compared to new drugs to treat SARS-CoV-2
• Examination of drug synergies in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2
Researchers are welcome to submit original research, reviews, perspective articles, or clinical trials on the mentioned above topics.