Chemoinformatic Analysis of Psychotropic and Antihistaminic Drugs in the Light of Experimental Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activities

Bruno O Villoutreix,1 Rajagopal Krishnamoorthy,2 Ryad Tamouza,2 Marion Leboyer,2 Philippe Beaune3 1INSERM U1141, NeuroDiderot, Université de Paris, Hôpital Robert-Debré, Paris, F-75019, France; 2Université Paris Est Créteil, INSERM U955, IMRB, Laboratoire Neuropsychiatrie Translationnelle, AP-HP, Département Medico-Universitaire de Psychiatrie et d’Addictologie (DMU ADAPT), Hôpital Henri Mondor, Fondation FondaMental, Créteil, F-94010, France; 3INSERM U1138, Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, Université de Paris, Paris, 75006, FranceCorrespondence: Bruno O Villoutreix Email bruno.villoutreix@inserm.frIntroduction: There is an urgent need to identify therapies that prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and improve the outcome of COVID-19 patients.Objective: Based upon clinical observations, we proposed that some psychotropic and antihistaminic drugs could protect psychiatric patients from SARS-CoV-2 infection. This observation is investigated in the light of experimental in vitro data on SARS-CoV-2.Methods: SARS-CoV-2 high-throughput screening results are available at the NCATS COVID-19 portal. We investigated the in vitro anti-viral activity of many psychotropic and antihistaminic drugs using chemoinformatics approaches.Results and Discussion: We analyze our clinical observations in the light of SARS-CoV-2 experimental screening results and propose that several cationic amphiphilic psychotropic and antihistaminic drugs could protect people from SARS-CoV-2 infection; some of these molecules have very limited adverse effects and could be used as prophylactic drugs. Other cationic amphiphilic drugs used in other disease areas are also highlighted. Recent analyses of patient electronic health records reported by several research groups indicate that some of these molecules could be of interest at different stages of the disease progression. In addition, recently reported d