3.3. Atazanavir (Reyataz)
Atazanavir (Figure 6) is another antiretroviral drug that competitively inhibits the HIV-1 aspartate protease. Atazanavir was approved in 2003 by the U.S. FDA and usually prescribed in combination with the pharmacokinetic booster cobicistat (combination is being marketed under the name Evotaz; 2015). Currently, it is being evaluated alone (NCT04468087; n = 189) or in combination with NA-831 (neuroprotective agent; traneurocin) or dexamethasone for the treatment of COVID-19 infection (NCT04452565; n = 525) or with nitazoxanide/ritonavir (NCT04459286; n = 98). The drug alone or in combination with ritonavir demonstrated in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 in Vero E6 cells, human epithelial pulmonary cells (A549), and human monocytes [109,110]. In these studies, atazanavir has been identified as inhibitor of Mpro. The drug and its combination have been projected to be 10-fold more potent than lopinavir and its combination with ritonavir. The drug also inhibited the virus-induced enhancement of IL-6 and TNF-α levels [109]. In a separate computational study, atazanavir was reported as a potential inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 helicase, a viral enzyme that unwinds nucleic acids [111].