ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND & AIM: As on date, no specific treatment is available for devastating COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. This pandemic viral infection has affected over 200 countries within a very short time and created a calamitous situation across the globe. As per WHO guidelines, the treatment is mainly symptomatic and supportive. This clinical protocol has not proven sufficient to save the lives of COVID-19 patients suffering from diabetes or having underlying liver diseases; hence there is utmost need to tackle this situation by other means such as Convalescent Plasma (CP) therapy. METHODS: A comprehensive literature survey was carriedout using Elsevier, PubMed, Taylor & Francis, Springer, Nature and Google search engines. RESULTS: The patients suffering from diabetes or liver dysfunction or any other underlying diseases are at greatest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. From the study, it is proved that plasma collected from the recovered patients of viral infection has considerable potential to treat the viral disease without the occurrence of adverse effects. CONCLUSION: The CP therapy can be a possible life saving alternative to treat critical COVID-19 patients having diabetes or underlying liver dysfunction. Hence, randomised clinical trials are recommended at the earliest to save the lives of infected individuals of COVID-19.
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/immunology , Coronavirus Infections/therapy , Diabetes Complications/physiopathology , Liver Diseases/complications , Pneumonia, Viral/immunology , Pneumonia, Viral/therapy , Betacoronavirus/immunology , COVID-19 , Clinical Protocols , Comorbidity , Diabetes Complications/immunology , Diabetes Complications/therapy , Humans , Immunization, Passive , Liver Diseases/immunology , Liver Diseases/physiopathology , Liver Diseases/therapy , Pandemics , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic , SARS-CoV-2 , COVID-19 SerotherapyABSTRACT
Despite advances in drug discovery, viral infections remain a major challenge for scientists across the globe. The recent pandemic of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), caused by a viral infection with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), has created a disastrous situation all over the world. As no drugs are available to treat this life-threatening disease and the mortality rate due to COVID-19 is high, there is an utmost need to attempt to treat the infection using drug repurposing. Some countries are against the use of these drugs because of adverse effects associated with drug repurposing and lack of statistically significant clinical data, but they have been found to be effective in some countries to treat COVID-19 patients (off-label/investigational). This article emphasises possible drug candidates in the treatment of COVID-19. Most of these drugs were found to be effective in in vitro studies. There is a need to re-assess in vitro data and to carry out randomised clinical trials. Further investigations of these drugs are recommended on a priority basis.