Abstract
After over one year, the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has still affected millions of people. For this reason, global efforts to promote better treatment of covid-19 have been undertaken focused on the repurposing of existing medications.In Brazil, azithromycin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, has been used in association with other drugs as an immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and anti-viral agent, regardless of bacterial co-infection. Indeed, data from experimental studies have demonstrated the capacity of this drug in reducing the production of infection-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-8, IL-6, and TNF-alpha. However, observational studies revealed conflicting results regarding its effect, whereas well-conducted clinical trials have not shown a considerable effect of this agent on the improvement of clinical outcomes. This narrative review addressed the possible role of this antibiotic in the management of covid-19, based on data from clinical and preclinical studies.
Publisher
Revista Ciencias em Saude
Reference52 articles.
1. Phelan AL, Katz R, Gostin LO. The novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China: challenges for global health governance. JAMA. 2020;323(8):709. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.1097 PMid:31999307
2. Mohamadian M, Chiti H, Shoghli A, Biglari S, Parsamanesh N, Esmaeilzadeh A. COVID-19: Virology, biology and novel laboratory diagnosis. J Gene Med. 2021;23(2):e3303. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgm.3303 PMid:33305456 PMCid:PMC7883242
3. Cucinotta D, Vanelli M. WHO Declares COVID-19 a pandemic. Acta Biomed. 2020;91(1):157-60. https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v91i1.9397 PMid:32191675 PMCid:PMC7569573
4. WHO. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-2019) Situation Reports [Internet] [cited 2021 Nov 20]. Avaiable from: https://bit.ly/3CIKrDq
5. Marinho PRD, Cordeiro GM, Coelho HFC, Brandão SCS. Covid-19 in Brazil: A sad scenario. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2021;58:51-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cytogfr.2020.10.010 PMid:33199180