Abstract
The COVID-19 disease pandemic remains a significant global problem, resulting in hundreds of millions of cases and millions of deaths. The search for specific inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 for the treatment of this infection remains relevant. Drugs such as Favipiravir and Molnupiravir, which exhibit specific antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, are already being used to treat patients. However, there is limited evidence of their effectiveness, especially against novel genetic variants of the COVID-19 pathogen. The aim of this study was to investigate the antiviral effect of these drugs using an in vitro experimental model of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Vero E6 cell culture and an animal model of infection using Syrian hamsters. It has been established that Molnupiravir has an inhibitory effect against variants of the SARS-CoV-2 with IC50 values from 16.51 to 7.88 µM in vitro, and reduces the infectious titer of the virus in the lungs of animals by ~1.5 Log10 in vivo, in while Favipiravir shows lower activity and severe toxicity. Dose selection and frequency of use remain unexplored.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 106-110 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Bulletin of Russian State Medical University |
Volume | 2022 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2022 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- antiviral activity
- antivirals
- COVID-19
- Favipiravir
- Molnupiravir
- Omicron
- SARS-CoV-2
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine