s SARS-CoV-2 Therapy: Old Drugs as New Interventions

An outburst of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has become a grave threat to global health and the economy. As of May 13, 2020, a total of 42,81,838 cases have been confirmed, with over 2,92,376 deaths worldwide. In India, 75,048 cases have been reported to date with 2,440 deaths. Management of this new coronavirus (COVID19) has mainly focused on infection prevention, case detection, monitoring, and supportive care. As there is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for human SARS-CoV-2, therefore identifying the drug treatment options as soon as possible is critical for the response to the COVID19 outbreak. Pro-inflammatory cascade and cytokine storm play a key role in the pathogenesis of new coronavirus. A large number of therapeutic interventions such as antiviral, antimalarial, convalescent plasma therapy, BCG vaccine, mTOR inhibitors, Tissue Plasminogen Activator, Human monoclonal antibodies, Anti-parasitic agents, Immunoenhancers, Nutritional interventions, JAK-STAT signaling inhibitors, ACE2 receptor modulators, and Angiotensin II receptor blockers have been either tried or suggested for effective treatment of patients with SARS-CoV-2 disease. Hence, we recommend that all the above potential interventions must be implemented in terms of their safety and efficacy through proper clinical experiments to control the emerging SARS-CoV-2 disease.