Preliminary communication

https://doi.org/10.2478/acph-2021-0013

Sitagliptin: a potential drug for the treatment of COVID-19?

SANAA K. BARDAWEEL orcid.org/0000-0002-4823-0708 ; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
RIMA HAJJO ; Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, P.O. Box 130, Amman 11733 Jordan
A. DIMA A. SABBAH ; Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, P.O. Box 130, Amman 11733 Jordan

Abstract

Recently, an outbreak of a fatal coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has emerged from China and is rapidly spreading worldwide. Possible interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with DPP4 peptidase may partly contribute to the viral pathogenesis. An integrative bioinformatics approach starting with mining the biomedical literature for high confidence DPP4-protein/gene associations followed by functional analysis using network analysis and pathway enrichment was adopted. The results indicate that the identified DPP4 networks are highly enriched in viral processes required for viral entry and infection, and as a result, we propose DPP4 as an important putative target for the treatment of COVID-19. Additionally, our protein-chemical interaction networks identified important interactions between DPP4 and sitagliptin. We conclude that sitagliptin may be beneficial for the treatment of COVID-19 disease, either as monotherapy or in combination with other therapies, especially for diabetic patients and patients with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions who are already at higher risk of COVID-19 mortality.

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; DPP4; ACE2; sitagliptin; drug repurposing; XCL10

Hrčak ID:

237515

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/237515

Publication date:

30.6.2021.

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