New Antivirals against Coronaviruses

A special issue of COVID (ISSN 2673-8112). This special issue belongs to the section "Human or Animal Coronaviruses".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 September 2025 | Viewed by 1017

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Center for Discovery and Innovation, Hackensack Meridian Health, Nutley, NJ, USA
Interests: human respiratory pathogens; lung infections; viral infectious diseases; antivirals; viral pathogenesis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

After four years of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak that led to the most recent pandemic, COVID-19 continues to be a human threat, especially in susceptible populations. According to the CDC, as of June 2024, nearly 1.2 million people have died of COVID-19 only in the U.S. Currently, a few vaccine options and antivirals authorized or approved by the FDA are available for the prophylaxis and disease treatment, including Paxlovid, Veklury, and Lagrevio as the most common drugs used. However, vaccines need to be updated as the SARS-CoV-2 virus is continuously changing, and the undesired side effects and the occurrence of drug–drug interactions represent key disadvantages for some of the existing antivirals.

The understanding of the current treatment limitations as well as the virus pathogenicity and escape mechanisms led to the discovery of new antivirals against coronaviruses, and candidates with good potentialities are advancing in different stages of development. The battle continues as new SARS-CoV-2 variants are emerging and new efforts are needed to fight the increased transmissibility and immune evasion exhibited by the circulating subvariants. The most recent reports highlight KP.3.1.1 (a new Omicron JN.1 subvariant) as the most prevalent VoC, accounting for nearly 30% of the current reported cases.

The aim of this Special Issue is to gather articles (research articles, short communications, and reviews) to visualize and contribute to broadcast the recent advances in the discovery and development of new antiviral candidates as well as innovative therapies for coronaviruses, including nanotechnologies, monoclonal antibodies, genome editing, and other alternatives directed to inhibit viral replication.

Dr. Nadine Alvarez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • antivirals
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • coronaviruses
  • broad-spectrum
  • pan-coronavirus inhibitors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 6130 KiB  
Article
The Antiviral Activity of GcMAF in the Treatment of Experimental Animals Infected with SARS-CoV-2
by Anastasia S. Proskurina, Oleg S. Taranov, Svetlana S. Kirikovich, Svetlana V. Aidagulova, Elena K. Ivleva, Andrey V. Shipovalov, Gleb A. Kudrov, Sergei A. Bodnev, Alena S. Ovchinnikova, Anna V. Zaykovskaya, Oleg V. Pyankov, Evgeniy V. Levites, Genrikh S. Ritter, Vera S. Ruzanova, Sofya G. Oshikhmina, Evgeniya V. Dolgova, Evgeniy L. Zavjalov, Alexandr A. Ostanin, Elena R. Chernykh, Nikolay A. Kolchanov and Sergey S. Bogachevadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
COVID 2025, 5(3), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/covid5030036 - 8 Mar 2025
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Abstract
Despite the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, there still remain risks of new aggressive strains of coronavirus. As the human population increases progressively, it is mandatory to ensure both preventive measures and an immediate response to emerging infectious threats. Another essential component for [...] Read more.
Despite the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, there still remain risks of new aggressive strains of coronavirus. As the human population increases progressively, it is mandatory to ensure both preventive measures and an immediate response to emerging infectious threats. Another essential component for rapidly restraining a new possible pandemic is the development of new anticoronaviral therapeutics. In the present study, the anticoronaviral capabilities of Gc protein-derived macrophage-activating factor (GcMAF) are characterized. It is demonstrated that the administration of GcMAF to Syrian hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2 within the first phase of infection (six days postinfection) is accompanied by (i) a statistically significant reduction in the viral load of the lung tissue and (ii) the switching of the inflammatory status of the lung tissue to a neutral one in terms of mRNA expression levels of the groups of pro/anti-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. The potential mechanism for this antiviral action and the containment of the inflammatory response by the drug associated with the engagement of terminal N-acetylgalactosamine GcMAF and C-type lectin domain containing 10A expressed at the surface of lung-infiltrating macrophages and pneumocytes, which simultaneously express angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, is discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Antivirals against Coronaviruses)
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