Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious
disease
caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Initially identified in Wuhan (China) in December 2019, COVID-19 rapidly
spread globally, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. Carriers of the
SARS-CoV-2 can experience symptoms ranging from mild to severe (or
no symptoms whatsoever). Although vaccination provides extra immunity
toward SARS-CoV-2, there has been an urgent need to develop treatments
for COVID-19 to alleviate symptoms for carriers of the disease. In
seeking a potential treatment, deuterated compounds have played a
critical role either as therapeutic agents or as internal MS standards
for studying the pharmacological properties of new drugs by quantifying
the parent compounds and metabolites. We have identified >70 examples
of deuterium-labeled compounds associated with treatment of COVID-19.
Of these, we found 9 repurposed drugs and >20 novel drugs studied
for potential therapeutic roles along with a total of 38 compounds
(drugs, biomarkers, and lipids) explored as internal mass spectrometry
standards. This review details the synthetic pathways and modes of
action of these compounds (if known), and a brief analysis of each
study.