COVID-19治療候補薬の有効性と安全性評価

抄録

The pandemic of COVID-19 presents an urgent need for effective treatments. To date, there are limited therapies that are proven to be effective against COVID-19. Several potential candidates or repurposed drugs are under investigation, including drugs that inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication and block infection via its receptor ACE2. The most promising therapy is remdesivir, which is approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use in adults and children hospitalized with severe suspected COVID-19. In addition, because SARS-CoV-2 may induce long COVID-19 symptoms, such as heart failure and myocarditis, safety issues of anti-COVID-19 drugs including cardiotoxicity are important for patients. Here we show currently available pharmacological strategies, that are based on our understanding of COVID-19. In particular, we have used iPSC-based models to investigate the efficacy and safety of drug candidates for COVID-19. We found several drug candidates which inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication. These drugs have not shown any cardiotoxicities using iPSC-cardiomyocytes. In the symposium, we would like to discuss our challenge and future perspectives against COVID-19 drugs.