Potential Therapeutic Options for COVID-19: Current Status, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge for the researchers to offer safe, tolerable, and effective treatment strategies for its causative agent known as SARS-CoV-2. With the rapid evolution of the pandemic, even the off-label use of existing drugs has been restricted by limited availability. Several old antivirals, antimalarial, and biological drugs are being reconsidered as possible therapies. The effectiveness of the controversial treatment options for COVID-19 such as nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, angiotensin 2 conversion enzyme inhibitors and selective angiotensin receptor blockers was also discussed. A systemic search in the PubMed, Science Direct, LitCovid, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, and ClinicalTrials.gov data bases was conducted using the keywords "coronavirus drug therapy," passive immunotherapy for COVID-19', "convalescent plasma therapy," (CPT) "drugs for COVID-19 treatment," "SARS-CoV-2," "COVID-19," "2019-nCoV," "coronavirus immunology," "microbiology," "virology," and individual drug names. Systematic reviews, case presentations and very recent clinical guidelines were included. This narrative review summarizes the available information on possible therapies for COVID-19, providing recent data to health professionals.

Pharmacological Activities of Psoralidin: A Comprehensive Review of the Molecular Mechanisms of Action

“…Despite advances in immunization and drug development, many viruses lack preventive vaccines and effective antiviral therapies, which are often caused by the generation of viral escape mutants (Calina et al, 2020a;Calina et al, 2020b). Thus, the identification of new antiviral alternative treatments is of critical importance, and bioactive natural compounds are an excellent source for such discoveries (Sarkar et al, 2020). In a recent study, it was shown that ethanolic extract from P. corylifolia seeds has good activity against papain-like protease (PLpro), an essential enzyme involved in SARS-CoV replication.…”

Vaccine- and natural infection-induced mechanisms that could modulate vaccine safety

“…Kineret/Anakinra; Leronlimab; Mavrilimumab; Methylprednisolone; Olumiant/Baricitinib; Otezla/Apremilast; Remdesivir; Tamiflu/Oseltamivir; Umifenovir/Arbidol; Xeljanz/Tofacitinib [ [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] ].…”

SARS-CoV-2 pathophysiology and its clinical implications: An integrative overview of the pharmacotherapeutic management of COVID-19

“…However, due to its central role in maintaining normal cellular functions, the components of the NF-κB pathway need to be carefully selected and evaluated for the design of optimally targeted therapies ( Padureanu et al, 2019 ; Rogoveanu et al, 2018 ). Therefore, the exploration of NF-κB and IL-6 inhibitors in the treatment of patients with COVID-19, synergistically with antiviral therapy may be feasible options ( Stancioiu et al, 2020 ; Nitulescu et al, 2020 ; Dehelean et al, 2020 ; Torequl Islam et al, 2020b ; Sarkar et al, 2020 ). The role of NF-κB in inflammation-associated GI malignancies has been previously documented ( Doukas et al, 2018 ; Gambhir et al, 2015 ; Vageli et al, 2018 ; Zhang and Rigas, 2006 ).…”