Pyrvinium-pamoate for COVID-19
c19early.org
COVID-19 Treatment Clinical Evidence
COVID-19 involves the interplay of 400+ viral and host proteins and factors, providing many therapeutic targets.
c19early analyzes 6,000+ studies for 210+ treatments—over 17 million hours of research.
Only three high-profit early treatments are approved in the US.
In reality, many treatments reduce risk,
with 25 low-cost treatments approved across 163 countries.
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Naso/
oropharyngeal treatment Effective Treatment directly to the primary source of initial infection. -
Healthy lifestyles Protective Exercise, sunlight, a healthy diet, and good sleep all reduce risk.
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Immune support Effective Vitamins A, C, D, and zinc show reduced risk, as with other viruses.
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Thermotherapy Effective Methods for increasing internal body temperature, enhancing immune system function.
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Systemic agents Effective Many systemic agents reduce risk, and may be required when infection progresses.
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High-profit systemic agents Conditional Effective, but with greater access and cost barriers.
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Monoclonal antibodies Limited Utility Effective but rarely used—high cost, variant dependence, IV/SC admin.
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Acetaminophen Harmful Increased risk of severe outcomes and mortality.
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Remdesivir Harmful Increased mortality with longer followup. Increased kidney and liver injury, cardiac disorders.
Pyrvinium-pamoate may be beneficial for
COVID-19 according to the studies below.
COVID-19 involves the interplay of 400+ viral and host proteins and factors providing many therapeutic targets.
Scientists have proposed 11,000+ potential treatments.
c19early.org analyzes
210+ treatments.
We have not reviewed pyrvinium-pamoate in detail.
, A genetically based computational drug repurposing framework for rapid identification of candidate compounds: application to COVID-19, medRxiv, doi:10.1101/2025.01.10.25320348
Background The development and approval of novel drugs are typically time-intensive and expensive. Leveraging a computational drug repurposing framework that integrates disease-relevant genetically regulated gene expression (GReX) and large longitudinal electronic medical record (EMR) databases can expedite the repositioning of existing medications. However, validating computational predictions of the drug repurposing framework remains a challenge. Methods To benchmark the drug repurposing framework, we first performed a 5-method-rank-based computational drug prioritization pipeline by integrating multi-tissue GReX associated with COVID-19-related hospitalization, with drug transcriptional signature libraries from the Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures. We prioritized FDA-approved medications from the 10 top-ranked compounds, and assessed their association with COVID-19 incidence within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) cohort (~9 million individuals). In parallel, we evaluated in vitro SARS-CoV-2 replication inhibition in human lung epithelial cells for the selected candidates. Results Our in silico pipeline identified seven FDA-approved drugs among the top ten candidates. Six (imiquimod, nelfinavir and saquinavir, everolimus, azathioprine, and retinol) had sufficient prescribing rates or feasibility for further testing. In the VHA cohort, azathioprine (odds ratio [OR]=0.69, 95% CI 0.62-0.77) and retinol (OR=0.81, 95% CI 0.72-0.92) were significantly associated with reduced COVID-19 incidence. Conversely, nelfinavir and saquinavir demonstrated potent SARS-CoV-2 inhibition in vitro (~95% and ~65% viral load reduction, respectively). No single compound showed robust protection in both in vivo and in vitro settings. Conclusions These findings underscore the power of GReX-based drug repurposing in rapidly identifying existing therapies with potential clinical relevance; four out of six compounds showed a protective effect in one of the two validation approaches. Crucially, our results highlight how a complementary evaluation-combining epidemiological data and in vitro assays-helps refine the most promising candidates for subsequent mechanistic studies and clinical trials. This integrated validation approach may prove vital for accelerating therapeutic development against current and future health challenges.