Updates on the Current Antivirals Therapy for the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mini-Review

Abstract

Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been recognized as a global public health threat and announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the absence of vaccine development for the COVID-19, one of the most common and currently implemented ways to combat the COVID-19 is to test the currently used antivirals through vitro and vivo trials. Objective: This mini-review aims at reviewing the latest available evidence on the potentially effective and safe antiviral drugs that can be used for controlling the COVID-19. Methods: Three databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane) were rapidly searched from 30 March to 2nd of October 2020 on studies reporting clinical outcomes of antivirals against SARS, MERS, or COVID-19. Findings/Conclusion: Currently, many antivirals that have been used with previous infectious diseases, are being used to treat the COVID-19 infection. Most of the observational studies and the RCTs have provided mixed or confusing findings. Due to the lack of reliable evidence from Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), no effective antiviral drug proved its efficacy and safety against the COVID-19. This rapid review focuses mainly on the latest findings of the most common used antivirals, hoping to continue the next reviews once we have stronger published RCTs based evidence.