This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The recent outbreak of corona virus and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a global concern. Despite efforts to clarify the physiology and potential therapy, specific guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 disease have yet to be established, and many therapeutic options are under investigation. Accumulating evidence suggests that dysregulation of iron homeostasis contributes significantly to the pathogenesis of COVID-19 through its toxic effects by the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This review focuses on summarizing the available literature and relevant studies conducted to date on the possible therapeutic effects of iron chelation therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 disease. Scientific databases (PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar) were searched for relevant articles using the following keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, clinical management, iron chelators/chelation. Research articles, reviews, research letters, case reports, and commentaries were considered. Although there is ample evidence of the potential beneficial effects of using iron chelators as adjuvant treatment in COVID-19, further research on this topic is needed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.