Chemoinformatic Analysis of Psychotropic and Antihistaminic Drugs in the Light of Experimental Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activities

There is an urgent need to identify therapies that prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and improve the outcome of COVID-19 patients. We proposed before summer 2020 that cationic amphiphilic psychotropic and antihistaminic drugs could protect psychiatric patients from SARS-CoV-2 infection based upon clinical observations. At that time, experimental data on SARS-CoV-2 were missing but today, open high-throughput screening results are available at the NCATS COVID19 portal. We here revisit our hypothesis in the light of these data and propose that several cationic amphiphilic psychotropic and antihistaminic drugs could be valuable to protect people from SARS-CoV-2 infection, they should have very limited adverse effects and could possibly be used as prophylactic drugs. Recent studies also suggest that some of these molecules could be of interest in more advanced stages of the disease progression. Clinical trials are now needed to fully evaluate the potentials of these molecules.