ArticlePloS one2020
In-silico drug repurposing study predicts the combination of pirfenidone and melatonin as a promising candidate therapy to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection progression and respiratory distress caused by cytokine storm.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health position paper and redox perspectives - Bench to bedside transition for pharmacological regulation of NRF2 in noncommunicable diseases.Redox biology · 2025Review
- Melatonin's Impact on Cytokine Storm and Modulation of Purinergic Receptors for COVID-19 Prognosis: A Mental Health Perspective.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2024Review
- Beyond Antivirals: Alternative Therapies for Long COVID.Viruses · 2024Review
- In Silico Modeling of Fabry Disease Pathophysiology for the Identification of Early Cellular Damage Biomarker Candidates.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Machine Learning-Driven Biomarker Discovery for Skeletal Complications in Type 1 Gaucher Disease Patients.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Aflibercept Off-Target Effects in Diabetic Macular Edema: An In Silico Modeling Approach.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Application of systems biology to identify pharmacological mechanisms of thrombotic microangiopathy evoked by combined activated prothrombin complex concentrate and emicizumab.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- AnMolecular genetics and metabolism reports · 2023Article
- Development of indolealkylamine derivatives as potential multi-target agents for COVID-19 treatment.European journal of medicinal chemistry · 2023Article
- Research Progress of Respiratory Disease and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Based on Artificial Intelligence.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
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- A quantitative systems pharmacology model for certolizumab pegol treatment in moderate-to-severe psoriasis.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Pirfenidone and post-Covid-19 pulmonary fibrosis: invoked again for realistic goals.Inflammopharmacology · 2022Review
- Possible Application of Melatonin in Long COVID.Biomolecules · 2022Review
- Potential Therapeutic Approach of Melatonin against Omicron and Some Other Variants of SARS-CoV-2.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Melatonin drugs inhibit SARS-CoV-2 entry into the brain and virus-induced damage of cerebral small vessels.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2022Article
- Identification of the Potential Molecular Mechanisms Linking RUNX1 Activity with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, by Means of Systems Biology.Biomedicines · 2022Article
- The medical and societal impact of big data analytics and artificial intelligence applications in combating pandemics: A review focused on Covid-19.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
From January 2020, COVID-19 is spreading around the world producing serious respiratory symptoms in infected patients that in some cases can be complicated by the severe acute respiratory syndrome, sepsis and septic shock, multiorgan failure, including acute kidney injury and cardiac injury. Cost and time efficient approaches to reduce the burthen of the disease are needed. To find potential COVID-19 treatments among the whole arsenal of existing drugs, we combined system biology and artificial intelligence-based approaches. The drug combination of pirfenidone and melatonin has been identified as a candidate treatment that may contribute to reduce the virus infection. Starting from different drug targets the effect of the drugs converges on human proteins with a known role in SARS-CoV-2 infection cycle. Simultaneously, GUILDify v2.0 web server has been used as an alternative method to corroborate the effect of pirfenidone and melatonin against the infection of SARS-CoV-2. We have also predicted a potential therapeutic effect of the drug combination over the respiratory associated pathology, thus tackling at the same time two important issues in COVID-19. These evidences, together with the fact that from a medical point of view both drugs are considered safe and can be combined with the current standard of care treatments for COVID-19 makes this combination very attractive for treating patients at stage II, non-severe symptomatic patients with the presence of virus and those patients who are at risk of developing severe pulmonary complications.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.