Potential Role of the Antidepressants Fluoxetine and Fluvoxamine in the Treatment of COVID-19.
Int J Mol Sci
; 23(7)2022 Mar 30.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2216285
ABSTRACT
Mapping non-canonical cellular pathways affected by approved medications can accelerate drug repurposing efforts, which are crucial in situations with a global impact such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Fluoxetine and fluvoxamine are well-established and widely-used antidepressive agents that act as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI-s). Interestingly, these drugs have been reported earlier to act as lysosomotropic agents, inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase in the lysosomes, and as ligands of sigma-1 receptors, mechanisms that might be used to fight severe outcomes of COVID-19. In certain cases, these drugs were administered for selected COVID-19 patients because of their antidepressive effects, while in other cases, clinical studies were performed to assess the effect of these drugs on treating COVID-19 patients. Clinical studies produced promising data that encourage the further investigation of fluoxetine and fluvoxamine regarding their use in COVID-19. In this review, we summarize experimental data and the results of the performed clinical studies. We also provide an overview of previous knowledge on the tissue distribution of these drugs and by integrating this information with the published experimental results, we highlight the real opportunity of using these drugs in our fight against COVID-19.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Fluvoxamine
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ijms23073812
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