Molnupiravir as a promising prodrug agent for therapy of COVID-19

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic accompanied by the emergence of new successive pathogenic variants makes problematic the prospects of the approach based on application of exclusively prophylactic vaccines to combat SARSCoV-2. This reason motivated the urgent need in search and development of chemical formulas showing direct antiviral action.The present mini-review provides data on chemical and enzymatic methods of producing molnupiravir regarded so far as one of the most effective pharmaceuticals for treatment of COVID-19. In conclusion of the literature survey it is suggested to administer lipid-containing analog instead of molnupiravir in COVID-19 therapeutic protocols. In this respect the authors reported the successful synthesis catalyzed by bacterial phospholipase D of 5′-dimyristoyl derivative of N4-hydroxycytidine – the compound allegedly more efficient than molnupiravir in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 replication.