Among the various lines of biomedical research that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced to promote, and if 2020 was the year of vaccines, 2021 could be that of new designer drugs. The drugs of possible use against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that we have known so far, such as remdesivir or dexamethasone, are compounds that already existed before the appearance of this pathogen. However, the time is yet to come when the deployment of drugs created specifically against the new virus will begin.
According to the journal Science, designer drugs against COVID-19, aimed at blocking the virus or treating its symptoms, are one of the great scientific fields to follow in 2021. Currently, more than 590 experimental compounds designed against it are under development. SARS-CoV-2 thanks to supercomputing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, which act by preventing the reproduction of the virus, for example by inhibiting one of its two proteases. Although these drugs will have to exceed the requirement of clinical trials, previous experience with vaccines has shown that the process can be accelerated to respond quickly to the ongoing crisis. Researchers are confident of the possibility of obtaining effective therapeutic cocktails such as those already used successfully against HIV.
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