Replaying the new crown era, those breakthrough therapeutic drugs that have to be said

Abstract: This review article focuses on the most impactful breakthrough medical innovations in response to COVID-19, Ebola virus disease (EVD), heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and malaria during the pandemic , these innovations have far-reaching significance and positive impact on mankind

Report of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia per 100,000 population by country and region from January 31 to February 8, 2022 (Source: WHO official website)

Report of deaths from new coronary pneumonia per 100,000 population by country and region from January 31 to February 6, 2022 (Source: WHO official website)

The COVID-19 pandemic will not stop the development of new research, but will instead lead to major breakthroughs in exploring the causes of various human diseases

As we all know, COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has caused a global pandemic

Table 1 Global vaccine approval and new crown specific drug research and development

Data source: FDA official website | Tabulation: Biodiscovery editorial team

02 Ebola virus

Ebola virus disease is a severe infectious agent that can cause viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and primates

Source: WHO official website

Ebola is spread through direct contact with dead, sick, and infected animals infected with the Ebola virus

03 Heart disease

Cardiovascular disease creates a huge health and economic burden

In 2021, the FDA approved the use of Kerendia® (finerenone, a nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor agonist, Bayer) to reduce heart attack, heart failure hospitalization and cardiovascular death in adults with chronic kidney disease associated with type 2 diabetes

04 Cancer

Tumor refers to a new organism formed by the uncontrolled growth of local tissue cells in the body under the action of various tumorigenic factors, generally manifested as a mass

The latest global cancer burden data in 2020 released by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) shows that there will be 19.

Statistics on cancer data in China in 2020 (Source: WHO)

Statistics on the incidence and mortality of different types of cancer in China in 2020 (Source: WHO)

Driven by the growth of the global cancer population and the rise of cutting-edge cancer treatments, the global oncology drug market rose from $83.

In terms of cancer treatment drugs, great progress has been made in the past two years for some cancer types.

Table 2 List of FDA-approved drugs with significant curative effect

Data source: FDA official website | Tabulation: Biodiscovery editorial team

05 Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive memory loss and acquired knowledge loss until complete loss of activities of daily living.

Alzheimer's disease is a public health priority recognized by the global disease health organization.

In view of the current difficulties in the development of Alzheimer's disease drugs, various aspects are analyzed.

Over the years, only 5 drugs have been approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, namely tacrine, rivastigmine, galantamine, memantine hydrochloride, and memantine/donepezil combination
.
On May 28, 2020, the FDA approved Tauvid™ (flortaucipir F18, Eli Lilly) for intravenous administration, a radioactive diagnostic agent used to help image the unique features of Alzheimer's disease in the brain for Adult patients with cognitive impairment undergoing assessment for Alzheimer's disease
.
On June 7, 2021, the FDA approved Aduhelm, jointly developed by Biogen and Eisai , an amyloid beta-directed antibody, due to the severe disease burden due to Alzheimer's disease despite questionable clinical efficacy Due to multiple factors, Aduhelm is still approved, which is also the first FDA-approved therapy to delay the decline of Alzheimer's clinical symptoms in nearly 20 years
.

06 Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a clinically characterized metabolic disease with hyperglycemia, the etiology and pathogenesis of which have not yet been fully understood
.
From the currently known pathogenesis, diabetes mellitus is mainly caused by defective insulin secretion or impaired biological action, or both
.
Long-term hyperglycemia in diabetic patients can lead to chronic damage, dysfunction and organ failure of various tissues in the human body, especially the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels
.

At present, the international standard for the diagnosis and classification of diabetes is the World Health Organization (1999) standard.
According to this standard, diabetes can be divided into four types: type I diabetes, type II diabetes, gestational diabetes and other special types of diabetes
.

Table 3 Pathogenic mechanism, proportion and incidence groups of various types of diabetes

Data source: World Health Organization Standards for Diabetes | Tabulation: Biodiscovery Editorial Team

According to the Chinese guidelines for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes, life>
.
When diabetic patients fail to reach the target blood sugar control after diet and exercise treatment, they need to use drugs to control them
.
Since the use of animal insulin to treat diabetes in 1920, in the past 100 years, about nine major classes of diabetes treatment drugs have been discovered and invented in the world: sulfonylureas, biguanides, glycosidase inhibitors, insulins, Thiazolidinediones (TZDs), glinides, GLP-1s, DPP-IV inhibitors, SGLT-2 inhibitors
.

As the course of the disease progresses, the patient's dependence on exogenous blood sugar control methods will gradually increase
.
According to the different stages of the patient's disease (the ability of pancreatic β cells to secrete insulin gradually decreases), blood sugar control, risk of complications and other factors, clinically, it is often necessary to choose between oral drugs and between oral drugs and injected hypoglycemic drugs (insulin, GLP- 1 receptor agonist) combination therapy
.

Table 4 Summary of the efficacy of drugs that can be used in the treatment of hyperglycemia

Data source: "Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes in China" | Tabulation: Biodiscovery editorial team

In 2021, the FDA approved Kerendia (Bayer), a nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that reduces the risk of heart and kidney complications associated with type 2 diabetes
.

07 Malaria

Human malaria is one of the most rampant human infectious diseases worldwide
.
According to the World Health Organization's Global Malaria Report 2021, globally, malaria mortality (i.
e.
deaths per 100,000 population) halved from about 30 in 2000 to 15 in 2015, and in 2019 It dropped to 13 in 2020, but in 2020 the death rate rose again to 15
.
About 96% of global malaria deaths occurred in 29 countries, of which the six countries with the largest distribution of cases were Nigeria (27%), Democratic Republic of Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), Mozambique (4%), Angola (3%) and Burkina Faso (3%)
.
Patients often experience fever, flu-like illness, chills and chronic illnesses that can lead to serious complications such as seizures, kidney failure, confusion and death
.

A breakthrough drug in the treatment of Ebola, Artesunate (Amivas US, LLC) is used in the first-line treatment of severe malaria in children or adults, often in combination with other antiviral drugs
.

In addition to the above-mentioned disease treatment drugs, NTLA-2001 (Intellia Therapeutics) is a CRISPR therapy drug for the treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis, which works by editing and targeting the human TTR gene
.
Zokinvy (lonafarnib, Eiger BioPharmaceuticals) is an oral farnesyltransferase inhibitor for the prevention of premature aging and the treatment of progeria and progeria laminopathy
.
Triterpenoid antifungal Brexafemme ®

(ibrexafungerp, Scynexis, Inc.
) for the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis in postmenarchal women and adults
.

This article aims to provide some new breakthrough medicines that have been proven to be clinically useful in the treatment of coronavirus-like diseases, EVD, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and malaria
.
However, some urgently authorized drugs must be further analyzed for their long-term clinical safety
.

References:

[1] Guidelines for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes in China
.
http:// Guidelines for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes in China
.
http:// [2] Eswara Naga Hanuma Kumar Ghali, Vijian Dhevan, Shravan K Narmala, et al.
Breakthrough medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic era.
Future Drug Discovery (2022).
DOI: 10.
4155/fdd-2022-0002

[3] China Oncology Innovative Drug Market Research Report
.
http:// China Oncology Innovative Drug Market Research Report
.
http://