Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spread across the globe resulting in a pandemic affecting 215 countries. At the time of this review, COVID-19 has been diagnosed in more than 15,000,000 patients and associated with over 1,00,000 deaths globally (Canters for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization). In this review, we herein summarize the current evidence as on June 15, 2020 to provide guidance on potential drugs for COVID-19 treatment or prophylaxis, their scientific rationale and their clinical efficacy and safety. New data continue to emerges daily regarding clinical characteristics, treatment options, and outcomes for COVID-19. Optimized supportive care remains the mainstay of therapy, and the clinical efficacy for the potential therapeutic agents is still under investigation.
Highlights
Since the first case was reported in December 2019 from Wuhan, China, infection with the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a worldwide pandemic affecting 215 countries [1, 2]
The lack of randomization and a contemporary control group and the concomitant use of glucocorticoids and ribavirin in that study made the effect of lopinavir–ritonavir difficult to assess. Lopinavir has activity, both in vitro [19] and in an animal mode [20], against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and case reports have suggested that the combination of lopinavir–ritonavir with ribavirin and interferon alfa resulted in virologic clearance and survival [21,22,23].Chao et
A recent paper reported an inhibitor effect of chloroquine on the growth of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV2 in vitro,[30] and an early clinical trial conducted in COVID-19 Chinese patients, showed that chloroquine had a significant effect, both in terms of clinical outcome and viral clearance, when comparing to controls groups[35]
Summary
Since the first case was reported in December 2019 from Wuhan, China, infection with the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a worldwide pandemic affecting 215 countries [1, 2]. The symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection vary broadly, from asymptomatic disease to pneumonia and life-threatening complications, including acute respiratory distress syndrome, multisystem organ failure, and death [6]. Older patients and those with pre-existing respiratory or cardiovascular conditions appear to be at the greatest risk for severe complications [7,8]. Many patients have received off-label or compassionate-use therapies, including anti-retrovirals, anti-parasitic agents, anti-inflammatory compounds, and convalescent plasma [11,12,13,14] In this commentary, we aim to assess the potential candidates for treatment and prevention of Covid-19 based on the scientific evidences
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