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Review
. 2020 Nov:161:105114.
doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2020.105114. Epub 2020 Aug 3.

COVID-19: Pharmacology and kinetics of viral clearance

Nicola Farina  1 , Giuseppe A Ramirez  1 , Rebecca De Lorenzo  1 , Luigi Di Filippo  1 , Caterina Conte  2 , Fabio Ciceri  2 , Angelo A Manfredi  2 , Patrizia Rovere-Querini  3
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19: Pharmacology and kinetics of viral clearance

Nicola Farina et al. Pharmacol Res. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The clinical spectrum of COVID-19 is broad and varies from mild to severe forms complicated by acute respiratory distress and death. This heterogeneity might reflect the ability of the host immune system to interact with SARS-CoV2 or the characteristics of the virus itself in terms of loads or persistence. Information on this issue might derive from interventional studies. However, results from high-quality trials are scarce. Here we evaluate the level of evidence of available published interventional studies, with a focus on randomised controlled trials and the efficacy of therapies on clinical outcomes. Moreover, we present data on a large cohort of well-characterized patients hospitalized at a single University Hospital in Milano (Italy), correlating viral clearance with clinical and biochemical features of patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pharmacology; SARS-CoV-2; Viral clearance kinetics.

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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

None
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Process of identification of interventional studies in COVID-19 patients and attribution of levels of evidence (LoE) according to the guidelines of the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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