Adjuvant Therapies of COVID-19-A Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was originated first in Wuhan, Chi-na, in December 2019, and it is known to be caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coron-avirus-2 (SARS CoV-2). The management of COVID-19 could be achieved by means of the usage of the repurposed drugs, inhibiting the viral entry and/or viral fusion such as umifenovir, Barici-tinib, Camostat mesylate, Nafamostat mesylate, and the drugs blocking the viral replication, which include favipiravir, remdesivir, Lopinavir/ritonavir, Ribavirin, Sofosbuvir, chloroquine and Hydrox-ychloroquine. Objective(s) Along with the drugs that target the SARS-CoV-2 virus, adjunctive therapies are also employed. This review focuses on the adjuvant therapies employed to manage the COVID-19-asso-ciated complications, such as cytokine storm, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), respiratory failure, cardiac injury, coagulopathy, and multi-organ failure. Method(s) The literature was searched in databases such as Medline/PubMed Central/PubMed, Goo-gle Scholar, Science Direct, EBSCO, Scopus, EMBASE, Directory of open access journals (DOA-J), and reference lists to identify relevant articles. Result(s) Various studies have been identified for the use of corticosteroids, interferons, monoclon-al antibodies, etoposide, ruxolitinib, anticoagulants, convalescent plasma, immunoglobulins, mes-enchymal stem cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and inhaled nitric oxide (NO) as adjuvant therapy to manage the patients with COVID-19 along with the repurposed drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2. Conclusion(s) The safety and efficacy of adjuvant therapy are needed to be confirmed by various ongoing randomized controlled clinical trials.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.