A team of researchers has found that three commonly used antiviral and antimalarial drugs are effective in vitro at preventing replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
The study, published in the journal ACS Omega, looked at three antiviral drugs that have proven effective against Ebola and the Marburg virus — tilorone, quinacrine and pyronaridine.
“We were looking for compounds that could block the entry of the virus into the cell,” said researcher Ana Puhl from the University of North Carolina in the US. “We chose these compounds because we know that other antivirals which successfully act against Ebola are also effective inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2,” Puhl added.