A group from Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA, etc. has reported that Probenecid (therapeutic drug for gout) could be a GOOD COVID-19 drug.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97658-w
The organic anion transporter 3 (OAT3) gene was identified as a host gene required for viral replication. OAT3 is expressed in the kidney, choroid plexus, vascular beds, and other peripheral organs including the lung, and mediates the transmembrane transport of endogenous organic anions including urate and other substrates and certain antibiotics. Probenecid is a commonly used therapeutic agent that inhibits OAT3. Probenecid is a gout treatment, and is a favorable candidate for antiviral drug repurposing.
Probenecid treatment reduced SARS-CoV-2 replication by 90% in human bronchoepithelial (NHBE) cells. The IC50 value for probenecid was shown to be0.0013 μM in NHBE cells. Probenecid treatment will likely have the benefit of inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 variants, because targeting host processes essential for viral replication such as OAT3 would be expected to be universal. Among the host targets that have been identified as potential targets for inhibiting virus replication, OAT3 blockade will not likely confer any mechanism-based untoward effects for humans since humans with reduced OAT3 function are healthy, and pharmacologic blockade of OAT3 is safely tolerated in humans.
