Current strategies and future perspectives in COVID-19 therapy

ABSTRACT

The outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the viral pathogen, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rampantly spread across the globe and has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in 2020. COVID-19 has impacted the economy, public health system, and even daily life. Several viral epidemics, mainly SARS-CoV, H1N1, and MERS-CoV, were reported in the past two decades, whereas SARS-CoV-2 is a newly discovered virus from the coronavirus family. In this chapter, we give a brief overview of the structure, etiology, and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 and move on to describe the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and current methods adopted for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. An in-depth insight into the role of immunomodulators, repurposed drugs, thromboprophylactics, convalescent plasma, and stem cells as therapeutics is provided. The chapter also focuses on future perspectives and research strategies that are being actively explored for the management and mitigation of COVID-19. The role of the route of administration of therapeutics with pertinence on nasal vaccines is highlighted. Finally, the use of biomaterials and tissue engineering approaches for designing effective interventional strategies is detailed. It is of paramount importance that host-pathogen interactions and pathomechanisms of infections are delineated in order to identify suitable targets for intervention. The attained knowledge may be extended to manage other infectious viral diseases and thereby future pandemics. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.