Anti-COVID-19 drug screening: Frontier concepts and core technologies
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Chinese Medicine Open Access
REVIEW
Anti‑COVID‑19 drug screening: Frontier concepts and core technologies Hua Luo†, Mingming Zhao†, Dechao Tan, Chang Liu, Lin Yang, Ling Qiu, Yan Gao and Hua Yu*
Abstract The outbreak of COVID-19 has recently evolved into a global pandemic. Up to July 2020, almost every country has confirmed COVID-19 cases reported worldwide. Many leading experts have predicted that the epidemic will persist for relatively a long period of time. Thus far, there have been no remedies proven effective against the disease. As the nation where COVID-19 broke out first, China has adopted a combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine to fight against the disease, and has achieved significant clinical result. Up to now, the COVID-19 pandemic has been effectively controlled in China. However, the rest of the world (except for a limited number of countries and regions) is still in deep water. This paper thoroughly summarizes interdisciplinary notions and techniques, including disease model, biochip, network pharmacology, and molecular docking technology, etc., providing a reference for researchers in the screening of drugs for COVID-19 prevention and treatment. These methodologies may facilitate researchers to screen out more potential drugs for treating COVID-19 pneumonia and to tackle this global crisis. Keywords: COVID-19, Disease model, Core technology, Traditional Chinese medicine Introduction COVID-19 is an acute respiratory infection caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The main symptoms of this disease include fever, dry cough, and fatigue, often accompanied by diarrhea, sore throat, runny nose, muscle pain, and so on. Severe cases can rapidly develop into respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, metabolic acidosis and coagulopathy, and multiple organ failure [1]. SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus with a membranous envelope, in a spherical or oval shape, often polymorphic, with a diameter of 60–140 nm [1]. The viral infection involves entry of SARS-CoV-2 virus into host cells [2–5] mainly via a cell receptor angiotensin-converting Enzyme II (ACE2). COVID-19 can be transmitted through human *Correspondence: [email protected] † Hua Luo, Mingming Zhao and Dechao Tan contributed equally to this work Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Room 8008, Building N22, Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macao SAR, China
saliva and physical contact, with an incubation period of 1–14 days. It is also highly contagious during the asymptomatic period, with 44 percent of transmission occurring before the onset of symptoms. The viral load in the patient’s saliva peaked during the first week of the onset of new COVID-19 symptoms such as fever and cough [3, 6–9]. No precise vaccine or drug has been approved to prevent COVID-19 effectively, leading to the rapid global spike of confirmed cases. Until 3rd August in 2020, more than 17 million cases of COVID-19 infections and with more than 680,000 deaths have b
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