Potential treatment of COVID-19

Abstract

Following the first reported cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology at the end of 2019 in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China, the causative agent was demonstrated to be a new coronavirus that has not been defined in humans before. The World Health Organization (WHO) named this virus as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease caused by the virus as coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). The disease spread rapidly to other countries through human-to-human transmission, and WHO declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. As of April 2020, the number of individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 related deaths continue to increase rapidly worldwide. The main reason for the increase in the rate of infection is person-to-person transmission, while the main reason for the increase in mortality rate is the lack of a proven medical treatment specific to COVID-19 and the severe course of the disease in the elderly with low immunity. While a vast majority of individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic or recover after displaying mild symptoms, hospitalization is required in 14% of cases and severe disease requiring intensive care admission is seen in 5% of the infected individuals. WHO and national guidelines do not make clear recommendations regarding treatments for symptomatic patients. Currently, there is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19, however supportive care, isolation and protective measures and experimental drugs/treatments are being used for the management of COVID-19. Medical treatments being used for COVID-19, aim to prevent the entry of the virus into the cell, to inhibit or reduce its replication, and to suppress the increased inflammatory response. In addition, “convalescent” plasma, which includes antibodies of patients who were completely recovered from the infection, is among the treatment options.