Potential therapeutic agents to COVID-19: An update review on antiviral therapy, immunotherapy, and cell therapy

• Published in: Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy 2021-06, Vol.138, p.111518-111518, Article 111518
• Main Authors: Mirtaleb, Mona Sadat, Mirtaleb, Amir Hossein, Nosrati, Hassan, Heshmatnia, Jalal, Falak, Reza, Zolfaghari Emameh, Reza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Antiviral Agents - therapeutic use; Antiviral therapy, Immunotherapy; Antivirals; Cell therapy; Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy; COVID-19; COVID-19 - drug therapy; COVID-19 - therapy; Humans; Immunotherapy; Nanomedicine; Review; SARS-CoV-2
• ISSN: 0753-3322; 1950-6007
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2021.111518

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2020 and coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) was later announced as pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, several studies have been conducted on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 by potential vaccines and drugs. Although, the governments and global population have been attracted by some vaccine production projects, the presence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antiviral drugs would be an urge necessity in parallel with the efficient preventive vaccines. Various nonspecific drugs produced previously against other bacterial, viral, and parasite infections were recently evaluated for treating patients with COVID-19. In addition to therapeutic properties of these anti-COVID-19 compounds, some adverse effects were observed in different human organs as well. Not only several attentions were paid to antiviral therapy and treatment of COVID-19, but also nanomedicine, immunotherapy, and cell therapy were conducted against this viral infection. In this review study, we planned to introduce the present and potential future treatment strategies against COVID-19 and define the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment strategy. [Display omitted] •Several studies have been conducted on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 by potential vaccines and drugs.•There would be urgent planes to combat COVID-19 infection in parallel with prevention strategies such as vaccination.•Macrophage therapy, Immunotherapy of COVID-19 (plasma therapy, cytokine-based immunotherapy, cell therapy DC therapy, and NK cell therapy), and nano-based therapy are believed to be useful as other effective therapies during COV-19 pandemic.