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Prof. Krogan and the team report that a variety of other FDA-approved drugs also target the sigma receptors. The drugs include progesterone, some drugs used to treat allergies, and the antipsychotic haloperidol.

They write that the most promising drug is an experimental anticancer drug called PB28. They found the drug was 20 times more potent than hydroxychloroquine at deactivating the new coronavirus.

Unlike the two antimalarials, PB28 does not bind to the hERG protein. This means that it may be safer at high doses.

Prof. Krogan told the New York Times that scientists have already begun some animal studies to test whether PB28 lives up to its early promise.

A large, unintentional trial of many of the drugs that Prof. Krogan and his team identified is already underway. Because doctors are already treating many COVID-19 patients with these drugs for unrelated conditions, it will be informative to see whether a pattern emerges in their survival rates.

They write: “Many COVID-19 patients will be on the drugs identified here, treating pre-existing conditions. It may be useful to correlate clinical outcomes with the taking of these drugs, cross-referencing with the networks described here.”