Race to arsenal COVID-19 therapeutics: Current alarming status and future directions

Chem Biol Interact. 2020 Dec 1:332:109298. doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2020.109298. Epub 2020 Oct 27.

Abstract

The on-going pandemic of COVID-19 wreaked by a viral infection of SARS-CoV-2, has generated a catastrophic plight across the globe. Interestingly, one of the hallmarks of COVID-19 is the so-called 'cytokine storm' due to attack of SARS-Cov-2 in the lungs. Considering, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) therapy could contribute against SARS-CoV-2 viruses attack because of their immune modulatory and anti-inflammatory ability linked to their stemness, to the arsenal of treatments for COVID-19. Another novel therapeutic strategies include the blockade of rampant generation of pro-inflammatory mediators like acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), degradation of viral protein capsids by PROTACs, composed of Ubiquitin-proteasome framework, and ubiquitination-independent pathway directing the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (nCoV N) and proteasome activator (PA28γ), etc. This review is consequently an endeavour to highlight the several aspects of COVID-19 with incorporation of important treatment strategies discovered to date and putting the real effort on the future directions to put them into the perspective.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology
  • COVID-19 / etiology
  • COVID-19 / therapy
  • COVID-19 Drug Treatment*
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2 / drug effects