We have utilised the transcriptional response of lung epithelial cells following infection by the original Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS) to identify repurposable drugs for COVID-19. Drugs best able to recapitulate the infection profile are highly enriched for antiviral activity. Nine of these have been tested against SARS-2 and found to potently antagonise SARS-2 infection/replication, with a number now being considered for clinical trials. It is hoped that this approach may serve to broaden the spectrum of approved drugs that should be further assessed as potential anti−COVID-19 agents and may help elucidate how this seemingly disparate collection of drugs are able to inhibit SARS-2 infection/replication.

我们利用原始严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 (SARS) 感染后肺上皮细胞的转录反应来确定可用于治疗 COVID-19 的药物。最能再现感染特征的药物具有高度丰富的抗病毒活性。其中九种已针对 SARS-2 进行了测试，发现可有效拮抗 SARS-2 感染/复制，其中一些目前正在考虑进行临床试验。希望这种方法可以扩大批准药物的范围，这些药物应作为潜在的抗 COVID-19 药物进行进一步评估，并可能有助于阐明这些看似不同的药物集合如何能够抑制 SARS-2 感染/复制。