ABSTRACT
A key part of many chronic diseases is inflammation controlled by inflammatory mediators. Regulation of their function allows muting the inflammatory response, which is the desired effect in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. The source of mediators is arachidonic acid, converted to pro-inflammatory mediators by cyclooxygenases (COX) or lipooxygenases (LOX). The 5-LOX pathway is full of target points for the regulation of biosynthesis of cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLT) - one of the major classes of inflammatory mediators. These compounds exert their activity through specific leukotriene receptors - first (CysLT1R) and second (CysLT2R). Drugs that inhibit CysLT synthesis, as well as leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRA), form a group of drugs known as anti-leukotriene drugs. Currently, only a few representatives of this group are available in the pharmacies around the world: The 5-LOX inhibitor - zileuton - and three CysLT1R antagonists - montelukast, pranlukast, and zafirlukast. LTRAs due to their wide range of anti-inflammatory effects are a group of drugs with a high potential in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. The study of new applications of known LTRAs and the search for new members of the LTRA group are the main directions of development in this field of pharmacy. This work summarizes the benefits of using anti-leukotriene drugs in the treatment of chronic diseases and presents new directions for using LTRAs.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging worldwide issue, that has affected a large number of people around the world. So far, many studies have aimed to develop a therapeutic approach against COVID-19. Montelukast (MK) is a safe asthma controller drug, which is considered as a potential antiviral drug for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This review has a systematic approach to investigate the reports on the use of MK as a part of treatment or a prophylactic agent in COVID-19. The search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases and yielded 35 studies containing the influence of MK on SARS-CoV-2. Ultimately, MK appears to be worth being used as an adjuvant therapeutic and prophylactic drug against SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, more clinical trials are required to accurately investigate its effectiveness.