ABSTRACT
The vaccine weapon has resulted in being essential in fighting the COVID-19 outbreak, but it is not fully preventing infection due to an alarming spreading of several identified variants of concern. In fact, the recent emergence of variants has pointed out how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still represents a global health threat. Moreover, oral antivirals also develop resistance, supporting the need to find new targets as therapeutic tools. However, cocktail therapy is useful to reduce drug resistance and maximize vaccination efficacy. Natural products and metal-drug-based treatments have also shown interesting antiviral activity, representing a valid contribution to counter COVID-19 outbreak. This report summarizes the available evidence which supports the use of approved drugs and further focuses on significant clinical trials that have investigated the safety and efficacy of repurposing drugs and new molecules in different COVID-19 phenotypes. To date, there are many individuals vulnerable to COVID-19 exhibiting severe symptoms, thus characterizing valid therapeutic strategies for better management of the disease is still a challenge.
ABSTRACT
One year on from the worldwide outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), medicine has made several steps towards increasing the therapeutic options against its treatment. Despite the lack of specific therapies, international societies have introduced new guidelines and launched several trials to test the efficacy of new protocols and drugs. Drug repurposing has been a fundamental strategy to find quick ways to fight the pathogen, even if it is new compounds that are drawing the attention of the scientific community. Tailored therapy should be considered to be a milestone in treatment in order to increase drug efficacy and to reduce drug toxicity. Therefore, both drug characteristics (i.e., pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and safety) and the patient characteristics (i.e., stage of disease, comorbidity, concomitant treatments and the mutation of single nucleotides) could represent the key to achieving this objective. In the present study we performed a narrative review of the pharmacological treatment used to date in the management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
ABSTRACT
Vitamin D is necessary for normal bone development and conservation. Moreover, it has extraskeletal effects, which play a pivotal role as a modulator of innate and adaptive immune responses. Many studies have highlighted the beneficial effect of vitamin D in protecting against acute respiratory viral infection, including COVID-19. Within this context, we described the effect of vitamin D supplementation in the immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Long-term IgG SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses were assessed in a cohort of twenty-two subjects diagnosed with COVID-19 by chemiluminescence assay (CLIA). Among them, a 61-year-old nurse undergoing vitamin D therapy showed a positive IgG response against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid over nine months after infection, suggesting vitamin D played a role in modulating early antibody response against SARS-CoV-2. This result provides evidence of a positive effect of vitamin D on the decrease of functional humoral immunity.