Computational drug repurposing in the age of COVID-19: mixing antiviral cocktails in silico

As clinicians and scientists gather more data on the clinical trajectory of COVID-19 and the biology of its causative agent, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, novel strategies are needed to integrate these data to inform new therapies. A recent study by Howell et al. introduces a network model of viral-host interactions to produce explainable and testable predictions for treatment effects. Their model was consistent with experimental data and recommended treatments, and one of its predicted drug combinations was validated through in vitro assays. These findings support the utility of computational strategies for leveraging the vast literature on COVID-19 to generate insights for drug repurposing.

Automated summary

This study introduces a network model of viral-host interactions to predict treatment effects. The model is consistent with experimental data and validates the efficacy of one drug combination. The findings demonstrate the utility of computational strategies for drug repurposing using the literature on COVID-19.