UTHSC researchers identify three drugs as possible therapeutics for COVID-19

Three drugs, already approved for other uses in humans, have been identified as possible therapeutics for COVID-19, the illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The finding is a product of work by researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) collaborating with those at the University of New Mexico. Based on virtual and in vitro antiviral screening that began in the earlier months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the researchers led at UTHSC by Colleen Jonsson, PhD, identified zuclopenthixol, nebivolol, and amodiaquine as promising therapeutics for the virus in its early stages. Dr. Jonsson is a professor and the Endowed Van Vleet Chair of Excellence in Virology in the College of Medicine at UTHSC. She also directs the UTHSC Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL), where this research was conducted. The university's RBL is one of roughly a dozen federally funded labs authorized to safely study contagious pathogens. In a paper published in ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science, the researchers propose the drugs as possible candidates for testing in future clinical trials to improve immune response to the virus. Amodiaquine is an older antimalarial, zuclopenthixol is an antipsychotic, and nebivolol is a blood pressure medication.