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Review
. 2020 Sep 15:883:173372.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2020.173372. Epub 2020 Jul 17.

Advances in the possible treatment of COVID-19: A review

Pankaj Chibber  1 , Syed Assim Haq  2 , Irfan Ahmed  2 , Nusrit Iqbal Andrabi  3 , Gurdarshan Singh  4
Affiliations
Review

Advances in the possible treatment of COVID-19: A review

Pankaj Chibber et al. Eur J Pharmacol. .

Abstract

The emergence of the global pandemic caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has put a challenge to identify or derive the therapeutics for its prevention and treatment. Despite the unprecedented advances in the modern medicinal system, currently, there are no proven effective therapies. However, rapid research on SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology help unveiling some new targets for potential drug therapies. Many drugs have been screened, and even their clinical trials are going on at an exceptional pace. Amongst these RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibitors (favipiravir and remdesivir) and steroids especially dexamethasone showed promising effects. The biological agents like tocilizumab, interferons, and convalescent plasma prove to be beneficial in viral clearance. Moreover, many immunomodulatory and viral S protein targeting vaccines have their ongoing clinical trials. The establishment of various in vitro and in vivo models for preclinical studies can additionally help the current research. The volume and the pace of the clinical trials launched to evaluate the safety and efficacy of various agents against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reflect the need for high-quality evidence for various therapies to be practiced by clinicians. This study aims to sum up all the current advances in the global medicinal system against the COVID-19.

Keywords: Antivirals; COVID-19; Epidemiology; Therapeutics; Treatments; Vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

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Graphical abstract
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