Difficulty in Repurposing Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Other Antidepressants with Functional Inhibition of Acid Sphingomyelinase in COVID-19 Infection

Pascal Le Corre; Gwenolé Loas

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.849095

Difficulty in Repurposing Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Other Antidepressants with Functional Inhibition of Acid Sphingomyelinase in COVID-19 Infection

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Mar 3:13:849095. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.849095. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Pascal Le Corre^{1

2

3}, Gwenolé Loas^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Pôle Pharmacie, Service Hospitalo-Universitaire de Pharmacie, CHU de Rennes, Rennes, France.
² Univ Rennes, CHU Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, Irset (Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail) - UMR_S 1085, Rennes, France.
³ Laboratoire de Biopharmacie et Pharmacie Clinique, Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Rennes 1, Rennes, France.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
⁵ Research Unit (ULB 266), Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.

Abstract

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has become a health emergency causing an urgent need for drug treatments to control the outbreak, especially in more vulnerable individuals. This is reinforced by the fact that prophylactic vaccines and neutralizing monoclonal antibodies may not be fully effective against emerging variants. Despite all efforts made by the scientific community, efficient therapeutic options currently remain scarce, either in the initial, as well as in the advanced forms of the disease. From retrospective observational studies and prospective clinical trials, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and other antidepressants with functional inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase (FIASMAs), have emerged as potential treatments of COVID-19. This has led to some prematurely optimistic points of view, promoting a large prescription of fluvoxamine in patients with COVID-19, that we think should be reasonably tempered.

Keywords: COVID-19; fluvoxamine; functional inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase (FIASMAs); repurposed drugs. (Min.5-Max. 8); selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).