Research progress in targets and drugs for novel coronavirus

The outbreak of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) caused by novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, SARS-CoV-2) has posed a serious threat to public health. Virus particles of SARS-CoV-2 are composed of outer envelopes and inner nucleocapsids. The nonstructural and structural proteins encoded by the genome play an important role in the whole life cycle of their adsorption, penetration, uncoating, synthesis of nucleic acids and proteins, assembly and liberation. Antiviral drugs can be developed to target the virus itself or key host molecules for virus infection. So far, antibody drugs targeting spike glycoprotein S and small molecule drugs targeting RNA polymerase have shown antiviral effects. They are currently more promising candidate drugs. However, their efficacy still needs to be proved by further clinical trials, and miracle antiviral drugs have not yet appeared. Considering the virus and host targets, the combination therapy of multi-targets and multidrugs, may achieve better therapeutic effect. In this paper, the structure and life cycle of SARS-CoV-2, the research progress in potential targets and drugs were reviewed to provide useful information for the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs.