Coronavirus Treatments: What Drugs Might Work Against COVID-19?

Abstract

The World Health Organization declared the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-coronavirus (CoV)-2 virus outbreak as a pandemic on May 27, 2020. Since then, more than 5 488 825 cases across the world have been recorded at the time of revising this article. Governments around the world have imposed serious containment measures, meanwhile, the healthcare system is overburdened due to large increases in COVID-19 cases. However, no specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 virus drugs or vaccines have yet been shown to be effective to fight this causative virus of acute infectious pneumonia. The current review was conducted to look for potential natural and synthesized drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Previously published data in journals, textbooks, periodicals, websites, and sources, including data about the treatment of human coronavirus with natural and synthesized drugs, were taken from the online bibliographical databases. The results showed that syndic drugs approved for other human diseases have been used to improve the symptoms of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Several clinical trials across the world evidenced beneficial effects of natural and synthesized drugs in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infections. On the other hand, many studies have provided a deep understanding of the therapeutic effects of conventional and traditional medicine in identifying naturally occurring drugs effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Both natural and synthesized drugs should come together to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other potential emerging dangerous viral diseases since they have shown promising findings in clinical trials conducted with COVID-19 patients.