Open AccessTheory and reality of antivirals against SARS-CoV-2
Author(s) -
Bo Zhao,
Tengfei Yang,
Rui Zheng
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
world journal of clinical cases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.368
H-Index - 10
ISSN - 2307-8960
DOI - 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i23.6663
Subject(s) - favipiravir , medicine , lopinavir , middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus , ribavirin , coronavirus , virology , ritonavir , chloroquine , covid-19 , disease , antiviral drug , intensive care medicine , infectious disease (medical specialty) , virus , immunology , viral load , malaria , hepatitis c virus , antiretroviral therapy
At present, over 180 million people have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) worldwide and there have been more than 3.8 million deaths due to the virus. However, specific effective antiviral treatment for this infectious disease is absent. At the beginning of the epidemic, relevant cellular and animal experiments of antiviral treatment for SARS-CoV-2 were conducted based on the prior studies of SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Some antivirals were preliminarily validated to be potentially effective in the clinical settings. But as the epidemic continued and more studies were carried out, the efficacy of these antiviral drugs became controversial. This paper reviews the pharmacology and application of interferon, lopinavir/ritonavir, ribavirin, chloroquine, arbidol, favipiravir, remdesivir, and thymosin α1 in coronavirus disease 2019. The actual effect of these drugs remains controversial. Meanwhile, the efficacy and safety of these drugs for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 still need to be explored.