Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jun;34(3 Suppl):1567-1588.
doi: 10.21873/invivo.11946.

COVID-19: The Potential Role of Copper and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in a Combination of Candidate Antiviral Treatments Against SARS-CoV-2

Andri Andreou  1 , Sofia Trantza  2 , Demetrios Filippou  3   4 , Nikolaos Sipsas  4 , Sotirios Tsiodras  4
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19: The Potential Role of Copper and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in a Combination of Candidate Antiviral Treatments Against SARS-CoV-2

Andri Andreou et al. In Vivo. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Background: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a pandemic. Since then, thousands of people have suffered and died, making the need for a treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) more crucial than ever.

Materials and methods: The authors carried out a search in PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) for COVID-19 to provide information on the most promising treatments against SARS-CoV-2.

Results: Possible COVID-19 agents with promising efficacy and favorable safety profile were identified. The results support the combination of copper, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), colchicine and nitric oxide (NO) with candidate antiviral agents, remdesivir or EIDD-2801, as a treatment for patients positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Conclusion: The authors propose to study the effects of the combination of copper, NAC, colchicine, NO and currently used experimental antiviral agents, remdesivir or EIDD-2801, as a potential treatment scheme for SARS-COV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; EIDD-2801; N-acetylcysteine (NAC); copper; remdesivir (RDV); review; treatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The Authors have no conflicts of interest regarding this review paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Research method: Phase I and Phase II.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Overview of stages of COVID-19 progression and potential inhibition/blockage by candidate treatment agents.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mapping the worldwide spread of the coronavirus 2020. The Washington Post, 2020. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/mapping-spread-new-co... [Last accessed on 10th May, 2020]
    1. Reguera J, Mudgal G, Santiago C, Casasnovas JM. A structural view of coronavirus-receptor interactions. Virus Res. 2014 doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2014.10.005. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. de Groot RJ, Baker SC, Baric R, Enjuanes L, Gorbalenya AE, Holmes KV, Perlman S, Poon L, Rottier PJM, Talbot PJ, Woo PCY, Ziebuhr J. King A, Adams M, Carstens E, Lefkowitz E, editors. Family coronaviridae: Part ii – the positive sense single stranded rna viruses. In: Virus taxonomy: Classification and nomenclature of viruses: Ninth report of the international committee on taxonomy of viruses. Elsevier/Academic Press: Amsterdam, Boston. 2012:pp.806.
    1. de Groot RJ, Baker SC, Baric RS, Brown CS, Drosten C, Enjuanes L, Fouchier RAM, Galiano M, Gorbalenya AE, Memish ZA, Perlman S, Poon LLM, Snijder EJ, Stephens GM, Woo PCY, Zaki AM, Zambon M, Ziebuhr J. Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (mers-cov): Announcement of the coronavirus study group. J Virol. 2013 doi: 10.1128/jvi.01244-13. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Perlman S, Netland J. Coronaviruses post-sars: Update on replication and pathogenesis. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2009;7(6):439–450. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro2147. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources