Using the SARS Infection Transcriptional Signature to Identify Potential Treatments for Covid-19

Gene expression data associated with viral infection of human cell lines is harnessed to define a conserved viral response signature. Drugs that tend to drive gene expression in the direction of the cellular viral response are significantly enriched for those with established antiviral activity. Transcription therefore facilitates a simple and effective filtering of candidate drugs to be put forward for bioassay validation.