ArticleChinese medical journal2020
Repurposing of clinically approved drugs for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 in a 2019-novel coronavirus-related coronavirus model.
Article in Chinese medical journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 168 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
168 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 308 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Safety and efficacy of oral administrated cepharanthine in non-hospitalized, asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients: a Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial : Author detials.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Direct visualization of RNA virus and evaluation of drug effect in living cells by catalytically transformable DNA cube.Science advances · 2026Article
- Clues to Long COVID Linked to Virulence and Infectivity Found in Shell Proteins.Advances in respiratory medicine · 2026Review
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- Exploring the pathogenesis of acute lung injury and its treatment through Traditional Chinese Medicine: a state-of-the-art review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Antimalarial compounds exhibit variant- and cell-type-specific activity against SARS-CoV-2 isolated in Panama.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- What Lessons can Be Learned From the Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic?International journal of public health · 2025Review
- Methylene Blue Has Strong Extracellular Virucidal Activity Against a SARS-CoV-2-Related Pangolin Coronavirus with No Intracellular or In Vivo Efficacy.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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- Drupacine as a potent SARS-CoV-2 replication inhibitorBiosafety and health · 2024Article
- A Comparative Experimental and Computational Study on the Nature of the Pangolin-CoV and COVID-19 Omicron.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
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- Cepharanthine analogs mining and genomes of Stephania accelerate anti-coronavirus drug discovery.Nature communications · 2024Article
108 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMedicines for the treatment of 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections are urgently needed. However, drug screening using live 2019-nCoV requires high-level biosafety facilities, which imposes an obstacle for those institutions without such facilities or 2019-nCoV. This study aims to repurpose the clinically approved drugs for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a 2019-nCoV-related coronavirus model.
methodsA 2019-nCoV-related pangolin coronavirus GX_P2V/pangolin/2017/Guangxi was described. Whether GX_P2V uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as the cell receptor was investigated by using small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated silencing of ACE2. The pangolin coronavirus model was used to identify drug candidates for treating 2019-nCoV infection. Two libraries of 2406 clinically approved drugs were screened for their ability to inhibit cytopathic effects on Vero E6 cells by GX_P2V infection. The anti-viral activities and anti-viral mechanisms of potential drugs were further investigated. Viral yields of RNAs and infectious particles were quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and plaque assay, respectively.
resultsThe spike protein of coronavirus GX_P2V shares 92.2% amino acid identity with that of 2019-nCoV isolate Wuhan-hu-1, and uses ACE2 as the receptor for infection just like 2019-nCoV. Three drugs, including cepharanthine (CEP), selamectin, and mefloquine hydrochloride, exhibited complete inhibition of cytopathic effects in cell culture at 10 μmol/L. CEP demonstrated the most potent inhibition of GX_P2V infection, with a concentration for 50% of maximal effect [EC50] of 0.98 μmol/L. The viral RNA yield in cells treated with 10 μmol/L CEP was 15,393-fold lower than in cells without CEP treatment ([6.48 ± 0.02] × 10vs. 1.00 ± 0.12, t = 150.38, P < 0.001) at 72 h post-infection (p.i.). Plaque assays found no production of live viruses in media containing 10 μmol/L CEP at 48 h p.i. Furthermore, we found CEP had potent anti-viral activities against both viral entry (0.46 ± 0.12, vs.1.00 ± 0.37, t = 2.42, P < 0.05) and viral replication ([6.18 ± 0.95] × 10vs. 1.00 ± 0.43, t = 3.98, P < 0.05).
conclusionsOur pangolin coronavirus GX_P2V is a workable model for 2019-nCoV research. CEP, selamectin, and mefloquine hydrochloride are potential drugs for treating 2019-nCoV infection. Our results strongly suggest that CEP is a wide-spectrum inhibitor of pan-betacoronavirus, and further study of CEP for treatment of 2019-nCoV infection is warranted.
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