1.Potential therapeutic effects of dipyridamole in the severely ill patients with COVID-19.
Xiaoyan LIU ; Zhe LI ; Shuai LIU ; Jing SUN ; Zhanghua CHEN ; Min JIANG ; Qingling ZHANG ; Yinghua WEI ; Xin WANG ; Yi-You HUANG ; Yinyi SHI ; Yanhui XU ; Huifang XIAN ; Fan BAI ; Changxing OU ; Bei XIONG ; Andrew M LEW ; Jun CUI ; Rongli FANG ; Hui HUANG ; Jincun ZHAO ; Xuechuan HONG ; Yuxia ZHANG ; Fuling ZHOU ; Hai-Bin LUO
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2020;10(7):1205-1215
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome, hypercoagulability, hypertension, and multiorgan dysfunction. Effective antivirals with safe clinical profile are urgently needed to improve the overall prognosis. In an analysis of a randomly collected cohort of 124 patients with COVID-19, we found that hypercoagulability as indicated by elevated concentrations of D-dimers was associated with disease severity. By virtual screening of a U.S. FDA approved drug library, we identified an anticoagulation agent dipyridamole (DIP) , which suppressed SARS-CoV-2 replication . In a proof-of-concept trial involving 31 patients with COVID-19, DIP supplementation was associated with significantly decreased concentrations of D-dimers ( < 0.05), increased lymphocyte and platelet recovery in the circulation, and markedly improved clinical outcomes in comparison to the control patients. In particular, all 8 of the DIP-treated severely ill patients showed remarkable improvement: 7 patients (87.5%) achieved clinical cure and were discharged from the hospitals while the remaining 1 patient (12.5%) was in clinical remission.