Abstract
In December 2019, a dozen of patients with unusual pneumonia were hospitalized in Wuhan in central China, and the causative agent was identified as a new type of coronavirus (Zhu et al. 2020; Huang et al. 2020). The new virus was temporarily named as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by the World Health Organization (WHO). As of January 29, 2020, 7736 confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV infection with 170 deaths were reported in China, and additional 77 cases in other 16 countries (National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China 2020; WHO 2020c). Since the emerging viruses are previously unknown pathogens, there are no specific and effective drugs available. Therefore, there is an urgent need for antiviral treatment in fighting the emerging viral diseases. However, the development of antiviral drugs is time- and resource-consuming, and thus repurposing of existing drugs to treat emerging viral diseases represents one of efficient strategies for drug development.
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