An 80-year-old man with multiple comorbidities presented to the emergency department with tachypnea, tachycardia, fever, and critically low O 2 saturation and definitive chest computerized tomography scan findings in favor of COVID-19 and positive PCR results in 48 hours. He received antiviral treatment plus recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) due to his severe anemia. After 7 days of treatment, he was discharged with miraculous improvement in his symptoms and hemoglobin level. We concluded that rhEPO could attenuate respiratory distress syndrome and confront the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus through multiple mechanisms including cytokine modulation, antiapoptotic effects, leukocyte release from bone marrow, and iron redistribution away from the intracellular virus.

Although people living with human immunodeficiency virus(PLWH) and other comorbidities are expected to experience griever consequences with COVID-19, recent cohort studies do not indicate this. Antiretrovirals(ARVs) might have a prophylactic role in these patients. The purpose of this study is to review the most recently published articles on the possible role of ARVs for pre or post-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19. From June to October 2020, we searched scientific databases using specific keywords to identify ongoing trials or articles published before October 2020 investigating any subgroups of ARVs for prophylaxis against COVID-19. Apart from molecular docking studies, in vitro, animal, and human studies are very limited for evaluating the prophylactic role of ARVs against SARS-CoV-2 infection. According to our findings, there is no definite evidence to support use of protease inhibitors for this purpose, despite the promising results of molecular studies and limited clinical evidence for ritonavir boosted lopinavir, darunavir, and nelfinavir when used early in the course of the disease. Nucleotide/nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors(NRTI) also have shown binding affinity to SARS-CoV-2 main enzymes in molecular, in vitro and animal studies. NRTIs like tenofovir and emtricitabine might exhibit prophylactic role against SARS-CoV-2 infection. In This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. conclusion, currently there is no evidence to justify the use of ARVs for prophylaxis against COVID-19.

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