Repurposing FDA-approved drugs for treatment of COVID-19

Antiviral drug development requires the screening of compound libraries using viral infection assays as readout. With this approach, the capability of a compound to reduce viral replication and virus-induced cytopathic effects (CPE) can be assessed.

In this short talk, Ahlam Ali from Queen’s University Belfast, UK shows results from a screen for antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity against SARS-CoV-2, using a drug repurposing approach with three different libraries.

For the screening, cells were seeded in 384-well plates and infected with the virus. 72 hours post infection, the viral cytopathic effect was measured on a CLARIOstar Plus plate reader with CellToxTM Green (Promega).

In addition to this talk, Ahlam shows how the CLARIOstar Plus reliably detects virus replication in cells in the application note “Antiviral assay based on expression of fluorescent proteins by the viruses” or 

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