Phototherapy application in controlling COVID-19 and associated complications: highlighting recent findings in the literature

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the scale of its damage to all sectors, and its high rate of mortality urgently called all scientists and researchers into action to find solutions that can mitigate its multi-dimensional burden. As of October 1st, 2021, COVID-19 has claimed more than 4.5 million lives and infected more than 200 million individuals. Therefore, every small effort that can positively contribute to the alleviation of the disease and its spread can tremendously help minimize the damage. The application of light as a therapeutic agent has been effective since the beginning of civilization. During the last century, artificial light and its combination with other chemical substances to fight microorganisms have been applied substantially in many domains, such as therapeutics and immunomodulation. In this review, we present the scalable application of light as an antimicrobial and immunomodulatory agent and its potential in fighting COVID-19 and in mitigating its damages by representing the recent developments in this area.