Potential antiviral therapies for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (called SARS-CoV-2) emerged in China in December 2019 and then spread rapidly to more than 200 countries around the world, including the United States, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, and South Korea, resulting in more than 208,112 deaths worldwide. As there is no approved vaccine or therapeutic available to control the COVID-2019 pandemic, scientists across the world are trying every possible way to find antivirals specific to this virus. In this urgent situation, parallel to the development of new vaccines and drugs, many previously approved antiviral drugs of broad range such as arbidol, interferon alfa, chloroquine, remdesivir, and favipiravir are presently undergoing clinical trials against COVID-19. So far some positive findings have been obtained, and here we present a thorough overview of all possible antiviral medicines that can control this pandemic of SARS-CoV-2.