The ongoing global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Wu et al, 2020). Treatment options for COVID-19 are limited, and consequently, coronavirus infections are overwhelming national healthcare systems. The R&D activity to develop a vaccine or drug against COVID-19 is being fast-tracked globally. By July 2021, 32 vaccines had reached phase-three clinical trials, and 11 were approved by at least one country (Dai & Gao, 2020; Creech et al, 2021). Although vaccines are the primary means to prevent COVID-19, antiviral drugs would significantly reduce the disease burden for the early treatment of COVID-19, and long COVID (Schmidt, 2021) suppression. Remdesivir (veklury), an experimental drug that was originally investigated as a potent inhibitor of Ebola virus (EBOV) (Warren et al, 2016), was the first drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of COVID-19 in October 2020 (Rubin et al, 2020). However, the World Health Organization (WHO) panel advised physicians against using remdesivir based on a review of several large clinical trials (preprint: WHO 2020; Harrington et al, 2021). Despite the controversy over whether remdesivir can reduce the duration of COVID-19, it is obvious that fully effective drugs for the prevention or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 are currently not available.

Origen: SARS‐CoV‐2–host proteome interactions for antiviral drug discovery | Molecular Systems Biology