RESUMO
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmittable pathogenic viral infection that causes a disease known as COVID-19. It is a pandemic and public health challenge ravaging the world today. Unfortunately, with the daily increase of infected individuals, there is no known drug approved for the treatment of COVID-19. However, there are therapeutic drugs with the potentials to inhibit endocytic pathways, suppress ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymerase activities, and reduce the replication of SARS-CoV-2. These drugs modifications are aimed at reducing inflammation, time of recovery, and number of deaths. This review is aimed at providing updated information on the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, preventive measures and therapeutic drugs used against SARS-CoV-2. The finding of this review revealed that some of these drugs are transmembrane protease, serine 2, and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 inhibitors with the capacity to block the entrance/replication of SARS-CoV-2 in a host cell and therefore, may be promising in preventing the spread and mortality of SARS-CoV-2. However, these drugs may cause detrimental health effects such as toxic and non-efficacy issues. Therefore great caution should be employed by health professionals when prescribing these drugs to COVID-19 patients.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Corn silk (Stigma madyis) is used in ethnomedicine for the management of diabetes, kidney stones, depression, fatigue, urinary infections and as a slimming tea. However, there is limited literature on its effect on body weight, lipid, hematological, hepatocellular, nephrological and histopathological indices which the present study evaluated. METHODS: In the acute toxicity test, aqueous extract of Stigma madyis was orally adminis- tered to rats using a gavage, in doses of up to 5 g/kg body weight. The rats were observed for any behavioral changes, signs of toxicity or mortality. In the sub-acute toxicity, rats were orally administered 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg Stigma madyis extract for 28 days. On the 29th day, the rats were euthanized and the following parameters measured; lipid profile, hematology, serum chemistry and histopathology of the liver and kidney. RESULTS: In the acute toxicity test, Stigma madyis did not cause any mortality and was non-toxic at the dose of up to 5 g/kg body weight. In the sub-acute study, the extract caused an observable significant increase (p < 0.05) in triglycerides (TAG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), while the concentration of high density lipoprotein (HDL) decreased significantly (p < 0.05) when compared to the control group. AST and ALT increased significantly (p < 0.05) in rats treated with 1000 and 2000 mg/kg of Stigma maydis compared to their control. The histopathological results revealed degenerative changes in the liver at 2000 mg/kg body weight extract. CONCLUSIONS: In long term treatment, toxic effects were observed in liver at the doses of 1000 and 2000 mg/kg. This study suggests that prolonged use of higher doses of aqueous extract of Stigma maydis ≥ 1000 mg/kg could be hepatotoxic. Therefore, only lower doses should be encouraged for therapeutic use.
