Current status and thinking of small-molecule drug discovery for the treatment of COVID-19

The discovery of small-molecule drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 is one of the most concerned research fields in drug discovery Different kinds of small-molecule drugs approved or being developed are currently under clinical studies for the treatment of COVID-19 At present, the design of most clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19 is lack of rationality Moreover, the efficacy of drugs is controversial High-quality results of clinical research are urgently needed There is no small-molecule drugs in clinical studies that have specific effects on SARS-CoV-2 To find more drug candidates, artificial intelligence, structure-based drug design and other methods are applied to discover pre-clinical small molecule compounds against important protein targets of SARS-CoV-2 and virus host Resources should be further integrated to discover drugs with specific effects to treat COVID-19 © 2020, Editorial Office of Journal of International Pharmaceutical Research All right reserved