Available drug therapies on COVID-19 and its side effects: An overview

Abstract

The sudden outbreak of coronavirus turned into a pandemic and resulted in huge socio-economic and human losses becoming a public health emergency. It took just 3-4 months to spread and encroach all over the world and not even a single country is left was unaffected by the coronavirus. WHO started clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory investigations in response to this outbreak to control the further spread of the virus. The coronaviruses are enveloped and pleomorphic. The spike proteins present on the virus surface mediate its entry into host cells. The vaccines recommended have been shown to reduce COVID-19 illness symptoms but somehow their role in the transmission of the disease is unclear. By contrast, immunomodulatory therapy has also benefitted patients. As long as SARS-CoV-2 spreads in the population there are chances of its mutation as RNA viruses mutate over time and its upcoming variants. The previous Delta variant and the latest Omicron variant may cause much more serious deaths and health issues. Variants reduce the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies or antibodies generated by previously administered vaccines. This review focuses on the pathogenicity of coronavirus and various drug therapies available to date to cure the disease. The present study also highlights the target sites and side effects of available drugs for treating COVID-19.

Keywords

• covid-19
• sars-cov2
• pathogenicity
• prophylaxis