Arbidol is a kind of non-nucleoside broad-spectrum antiviral drugs

which plays an antiviral role mainly by inhibiting the entry of virus into cells and regulating immunity. A large number of experiments have confirmed the antiviral activity of arbidol against a variety of viruses

including DNA and RNA viruses

enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. In China

arbidol is mainly used for the treatment of upper respiratory tract infection caused by influenza A and B virus. After the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic

the results of in vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that arbidol has significant inhibitory effects on SARS-CoV-2

and the use of arbidol can improve the clinical outcomes of patients

yet there are also reports shows that arbidol has no definite curative efficacy. As a kind of potentially effective antiviral drugs

arbidol still needs a lot of clinical practice confirmation.