Repurposing of Rutan showed effective treatment for COVID-19 disease

Shavkat I Salikhov; Ibrokhim Y Abdurakhmonov; Yuliya I Oshchepkova; Jamolitdin F Ziyavitdinov; Nodir Sh Berdiev; Haji Akber Aisa; Jingshan Shen; Yechun Xu; H Eric Xu; Xiangrui Jiang; Leike Zhang; Natalia L Vypova; Dilshod Sh Allaberganov; Nigora A Tagayalieva; Erkin I Musabaev; Gulnara A Ibadova; Ilxom B Rajabov; Lyubov M Lokteva

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1310129

Repurposing of Rutan showed effective treatment for COVID-19 disease

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Nov 29:10:1310129. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1310129. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Shavkat I Salikhov¹, Ibrokhim Y Abdurakhmonov², Yuliya I Oshchepkova¹, Jamolitdin F Ziyavitdinov¹, Nodir Sh Berdiev¹, Haji Akber Aisa³, Jingshan Shen⁴, Yechun Xu⁴, H Eric Xu⁴, Xiangrui Jiang⁴, Leike Zhang⁵, Natalia L Vypova¹, Dilshod Sh Allaberganov¹, Nigora A Tagayalieva¹, Erkin I Musabaev⁶, Gulnara A Ibadova⁷, Ilxom B Rajabov⁷, Lyubov M Lokteva⁶

Affiliations

¹ A.S. Sadykov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (UzAS), Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
² Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
³ Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ürümqi, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, CAS Key Laboratory of Receptor Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
⁶ Scientific-Research Institute of Virology of the Ministry of the Health of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
⁷ Centre for the Development of Professional Qualification of Medical Workers, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Abstract

Previously, from the tannic sumac plant (Rhus coriaria), we developed the Rutan 25 mg oral drug tablets with antiviral activity against influenza A and B viruses, adenoviruses, paramyxoviruses, herpes virus, and cytomegalovirus. Here, our re-purposing study demonstrated that Rutan at 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg provided a very effective and safe treatment for COVID-19 infection, simultaneously inhibiting two vital enzyme systems of the SARS-CoV-2 virus: 3C-like proteinase (3CLpro) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). There was no drug accumulation in experimental animals' organs and tissues. A clinical study demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in the C-reactive protein and a reduction of the viremia period. In patients receiving Rutan 25 mg (children) and 100 mg (adults), the frequency of post-COVID-19 manifestations was significantly less than in the control groups not treated with Rutan tablets. Rutan, having antiviral activity, can provide safe treatment and prevention of COVID-19 in adults and children.

Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID NCT05862883.

Keywords: 3CLpro; COVID-19; RdRp; Rhus coriaria; Rutan; SARS-CoV-2; clinical trial.

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT05862883

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Ministry of the Innovative Development Republic of Uzbekistan, grant number I-FA-2021-72.