Repurposing of drugs for prevention and treatment of Covid-19

Project acronym:   COVIDTARGET

Project type:   COVID-19

Unique project identifier:   7551100

Project Web site:   https://www.covidtarget.rs/

Project is funded by:   Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (Belgrade, Serbia)

Instituions where the research is conducted:

• Institut za nuklearne nauke Vinča, Univerzitet u Beogradu (Belgrade, Serbia)
• University of Belgrade - Faculty of Chemistry (Belgrade, Serbia)

Project realization is scheduled from January 13, 2021 till July 13, 2022.

Project staff

Short description of the project

The COVIDTARGET project's objective is the repurposing of approved drugs to prevent and treat COVID-19 disease. This objective will be achieved by employing an innovative in silico concept for the selection of candidate drugs.

The most promising candidate drugs according to in silico criterion will be tested experimentally to confirm the predicted effects against each of the selected therapeutic targets in biochemical assays. The final decision about the suitability of repurposed drugs for further clinical studies will be based on the experimental evaluation of their antiviral activity against the prototype SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell culture and the animal model mimicking the human infection.

It is expected that these theoretical and experimental approaches will allow the selection of non-toxic, readily available and cheap drugs, which can be put on fast track for required regulatory approvals for human use against COVID-19.

The COVIDTARGET project methodology and the obtained results will serve as a base for developing the platform for the study of new and emerging pathogens and the discovery of novel and repurposed drugs. This approach will increase the national capacity to respond to future epidemic and pandemic disease outbreaks.