Knowledge-based repositioning of the anti-HCV direct antiviral agent Sofosbuvir as SARS-CoV-2 treatment

Luigi Buonaguro; Franco M Buonaguro

doi:10.1186/s13027-020-00302-x

Knowledge-based repositioning of the anti-HCV direct antiviral agent Sofosbuvir as SARS-CoV-2 treatment

Infect Agent Cancer. 2020 May 12:15:32. doi: 10.1186/s13027-020-00302-x. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Luigi Buonaguro¹, Franco M Buonaguro²

Affiliations

¹ 1Laboratory of Innovative Immunological Models, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, "Fondazione Pascale" - IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 1, 80131 Naples, Italy.
² 2Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Viral Oncology, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, "Fondazione Pascale" - IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola 52, 80131 Naples, Italy.

Abstract

The new human coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense RNA virus for which no specific drugs are currently available. A knowledge-based analysis strongly suggests a possible repositioning of the anti-HCV direct antiviral agent (DAA) Sofosbuvir as treatment for SARS-CoV-2. Indeed, the RNA-dependent RNA-polymerases (RdRp) of the two viruses show high sequence and structural homology, supporting the likelihood of binding the Sofosbuvir molecule with similar efficiency. Such a repositioning would allow the containment of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and limit the progression of disease to potentially deadly COVID19.