Biologics: Targets & Therapy (Oct 2020)

Glycopeptides as Potential Interventions for COVID-19

  • Demsie DG,
  • Gebre AK,
  • Yimer EM,
  • Alema NM,
  • Araya EM,
  • Bantie AT,
  • Allene MD,
  • Gebremedhin H,
  • Yehualaw A,
  • Tafere C,
  • Tadese HT,
  • Amare B,
  • Weldekidan E,
  • Gebrie D

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 14
pp. 107 – 114

Abstract

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Desalegn Getnet Demsie, 1 Abadi Kahsu Gebre, 1, 2 Ebrahim M Yimer, 1– 3 Niguse Meles Alema, 1 Ephrem Mebrahtu Araya, 1– 3 Abere Tilahun Bantie, 1– 4 Mengesha Dessie Allene, 1– 5 Hagazi Gebremedhin, 2 Adane Yehualaw, 6 Chernet Tafere, 6 Haileslassie Tesfay Tadese, 1– 5, 7 Bekalu Amare, 2 Etsay Weldekidan, 1 Desye Gebrie 8, 9 1Adigrat University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Adigrat, Ethiopia; 2Mekelle University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Mekelle, Ethiopia; 3Wollo University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Dessie, Ethiopia; 4Adigrat University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Anesthesia, Adigrat, Ethiopia; 5Debre Berhan University, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Department of Anesthesia, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia; 6Bahir Dar University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia; 7Adigrat University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, Adigrat, Ethiopia; 8Mekelle University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Social Pharmacy and Pharmacoepidemiology, Mekelle, Ethiopia; 9Addis Ababa University, College of Health Sciences, Center for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Desalegn Getnet Demsie Email [email protected]: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease that primarily attacks the human pulmonary system, is caused by a viral strain called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The outbreak emerged from Wuhan, China, and later spread throughout the world. Until the first week of May 2020, over 3.7 million cases had been reported worldwide and more than 258,000 had died due to the disease. So far, off label use of various drugs has been tried in many clinical settings, however, at present, there is no vaccine or antiviral treatment for human and animal coronaviruses. Therefore, repurposing of the available drugs may be promising to control emerging infections of SARS-COV2; however, new interventions are likely to require months to years to develop. Glycopeptides, which are active against gram-positive bacteria, have demonstrated significant activity against viral infections including SARS-COV and MERS-COV and have a high resemblance of sequence homology with SARS-COV2. Recent in vitro studies have also shown promising activities of aglycon derivative of glycopeptides and teicoplanin against SARS-COV2. Hydrophobic aglycon derivatives and teicoplanin, with minimal toxicity to human cell lines, inhibit entry and replication of SARS-COV2. These drugs block proteolysis of polyprotein a/b with replicase and transcription domains. Teicoplanin use was associated with complete viral clearance in a cohort of patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms. This review attempts to describe the activity, elucidate the possible mechanisms and potential clinical applications of existing glycopeptides against corona viruses, specifically SARS-COV2.Keywords: corona virus, SARS-COV, SARS-COV2, COVID19, glycopeptides

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