Background

Currently there is no specific medication for COVID-19. Although remdesivir is viewed as a promising medication and has been used to treat COVID-19 patients, its outcome is difficult to predict due to its lack of previous clinical trials. Remdesivir (GS-5734) is a small molecule carrying the phosphoramidate feature and adenosine analogue that acts as a broad-spectrum antiviral drug. Its antiviral activity against EBOV and MERS-CoV have been studied, yet the efficacy toward SARS-CoV-2 awaits examinations. Nonetheless, existing knowledge about remdesivir indicates that small molecules with the structure featuring a nucleoside analogue could be a potential pool with promising COVID-19 treatment.

Among many viral replication processes, targeting the key enzymes for genome replication (i.e. RdRP) appears to be an especially