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Review
. 2020 Oct:144:111639.
doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2020.111639. Epub 2020 Jul 21.

An overview of the safety assessment of medicines currently used in the COVID-19 disease treatment

Dragana Javorac  1 , Lazar Grahovac  1 , Luka Manić  1 , Nikola Stojilković  1 , Milena Anđelković  1 , Zorica Bulat  1 , Danijela Đukić-Ćosić  1 , Marijana Curcic  2 , Aleksandra Buha Djordjevic  1
Affiliations
Review

An overview of the safety assessment of medicines currently used in the COVID-19 disease treatment

Dragana Javorac et al. Food Chem Toxicol. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

On 11th March 2020, the pandemic of the new coronavirus was declared by the World Health Organization. At the moment, there are no new registered medicines that can effectively treat the coronavirus infection. However, a number of ongoing clinical trials are investigating the efficacy and safety of the medicines which have already been registered and used for the treatment of other diseases, in the treatment of the coronavirus infection. The proposed combinations of these medicines could potentially present a safety risk, since most of these medicines have the potential to cause numerous side or toxic effects, even when used in monotherapy. Thus, the aim of this study was to review and evaluate the literature data on the toxicity of the selected individual drugs (ritonavir, lopinavir, remdesivir, chloroquine, and umifenovir) and the available clinical data concerning the possible adverse effects of the selected drug combinations (lopinavir/ritonavir + umifenovir, lopinavir/ritonavir + interferon β, chloroquine + remdesivir, and chloroquine + azithromycin). The most often reported toxic effects of these medicines such as hepatotoxicity, retinal damage, nephrotoxicity, and cardiotoxicity, together with the fact that the health status of the patients with COVID-19 disease is often complicated by co-existing illnesses and therapy implicate that the decision on the therapeutic strategy should be made with caution.

Keywords: COVID-19; Medicines; SARS-CoV-2; Therapy; Toxicity.

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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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