ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the COVID-19 emergence, many scientists believed that, thanks to the proofreading enzyme of SARS-CoV-2, the virus would not have many mutations. Our team introduced the concept of radiation at extremely low doses in an attempt to establish selected pressure-free treatment approaches for COVID-19. The capacity of low-dose radiation to modulate excessive inflammatory responses, optimize the immune system, prevent the occurrence of dangerous cytokine storm, regulate lymphocyte counts, and control bacterial co-infections as well as different modalities were proposed as a treatment program for patients with severe COVID-19-associated pneumonia. There is now substantial evidence which indicates that it would be unwise not to further investigate low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT) as an effective remedy against COVID-19-associated pneumonia.
ABSTRACT
Simple SummaryThere are limited available data indicating that in oxygen-dependent elderly patients with COVID-19-associated pneumonia, low-dose whole-lung radiation doses, ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 Gy, can lead to accelerated recovery and progress in clinical status, encephalopathy, and radiographic consolidation without any detectable acute toxicity. Therefore, low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT), using conventional cancer radiation therapy machines, could be introduced as a safe treatment with promising efficacy that fully warrants further large-scale studies. Current findings indicate that LDRT could increase the survival of elderly patients and of patients with genetic risk factors, who are at greater risk of mortality due to COVID-19, even if more preclinical work and clinical trials are needed before any clear conclusion can be made.The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is of great concern for the whole world, and finding an effective treatment for the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is, therefore, a global race. In particular, treatment options for elderly patients and patients with genetic risk factors with COVID-19-associated pneumonia are limited, and many patients die. Low-dose radiotherapy (LDRT) of lungs was used to treat pneumonia many decades ago. Since the first report on the potential efficacy of LDRT for COVID-19-associated pneumonia was published on 1 April, 2020, tens of papers have addressed the importance of this treatment. Moreover, the findings of less than 10 clinical trials conducted to date are now available. We performed a detailed search of PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus and selected the nine most relevant articles. A review of these articles was conducted. The available data indicate that in oxygen-dependent elderly patients with COVID-19-associated pneumonia, whole-lung radiation at doses of 0.5–1.5 Gy can lead to accelerated recovery and progress in clinical status, encephalopathy, and radiographic consolidation without any detectable acute toxicity. Although data collected so far show that LDRT could be introduced as a treatment with promising efficacy, due to limitations such as lack of randomization in most studies, we need further large-scale randomized studies, especially for elderly patients who are at greater risk of mortality due to COVID-19. However, more preclinical work and clinical trials are needed before any clear conclusion can be made.
ABSTRACT
The new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has caused more than 40 million human infections since December 2019, when a cluster of unexplained pneumonia cases was first reported in Wuhan, China. Just a few days after the coronavirus was officially recognized, it was identified as the causative agent of this mysterious pneumonia. This paper discusses the pros and cons of antiviral drugs from the selective pressure and possible drug resistance point of view. We also address the key advantages of potential selective pressure-free treatment methods such as the use of sparsely and densely ionizing low-dose radiation (LDR). It is known that LDR has the capacity to modulate excessive inflammatory responses, regulate lymphocyte counts and control bacterial co-infections in patients with COVID-19 and different modalities. Substantial evidence shows that viruses are constantly mutating and evolving. When an antiviral immune response is unable to eliminate a virus, viral evolution is promoted. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to limit the use of antivirals/vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 when their effects on viral fitness are not fully understood. Furthermore, to limit the spread of the virus, it is essential to develop a vaccine that is available for as many people as possible. However, with the advent of vaccines or new therapies, the new situation may force the virus to evolve. Given this consideration, selective pressure-free treatments for COVID-19 are of great importance.