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World J Clin Oncol. May 24, 2021; 12(5): 309-322
Published online May 24, 2021. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v12.i5.309
COVID-19: Where is the treatment?
Bonala Sabeerabi, Sarojamma Vemula, Ramakrishna Vadde, Ganji Purnachandra Nagaraju
Bonala Sabeerabi, Department of Biochemistry, Biostandups, Hyderabad 500039, Telangana, India
Sarojamma Vemula, Department of Microbiology, Government Medical College, Anantapur 515001, Andhra Pradesh, India
Ramakrishna Vadde, Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa 516003, Andhra Pradesh, India
Ganji Purnachandra Nagaraju, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States
Author contributions: All authors are equally contributed.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ganji Purnachandra Nagaraju, DSc, PhD, Instructor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University, 1365 Clifton Road Winship C #3025, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States. pganji@emory.edu
Received: January 7, 2021
Peer-review started: January 14, 2021
First decision: March 1, 2021
Revised: March 4, 2021
Accepted: May 17, 2021
Article in press: May 17, 2021
Published online: May 24, 2021
Processing time: 134 Days and 11.8 Hours
Abstract

Even though the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is related to SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), identifying effective and safe therapeutic strategies remains challenging. In search of finding effective treatments to eradicate the virus and improve disease symptoms, scientists are exploring possible therapies such as anti-viral, anti-malaria, immune therapy, and hormone treatments. However, the efficacy of these treatments was not validated on either SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV. In this study, we have reviewed synthetic evidence achieved through systematic and meta-analysis of therapeutics specific for SARS-CoV-2 and observed that the use of the above-mentioned therapies had no clinical benefits in coronavirus disease 2019 patients and, conversely, displayed side effects.

Keywords: COVID-19; Meta-analysis; Therapeutics; Anti-viral drugs; Immune therapy; Corticosteroids

Core Tip: The outcomes from these studies, supporting the use of anti-corona therapies, remain mostly inconclusive and uninspiring, so far, because of the lack of evidence, methodological flaws, missing data entries, risk of bias, publication bias, heterogeneity of outcomes and the number of subjects included in the respective studies. High-quality data from more stringent studies involving large samples, particularly randomized clinical studies, and caution on when to employ the treatments are needed.