Analysis of scientific evidence for pharmacological management of covid-19: therapeutic approaches description and discussion

The current COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. In the last four months, since the onset of the disease on December 31, 2019, more than 200,000 deaths and 3 million cases have been confirmed in over 200 countries worldwide. There are still no recognized specific pharmacological therapies and/or vaccines to regulate the virus. So, we aim to analyze and compile data on the main scientific evidence of treatment for COVID-19, and critical discussion of the use of drugs still in the experimental phase A search was performed using the descriptor “COVID-19 treatment”, in the PubMed database, searching for original articles published between January & April 2020, which presented reports/case series, in vitro, in vivo or in silico studies, and clinical trials. A total of 234 articles were retrieved, precluding reviews, duplicate articles and other exclusion factors, 30 articles remained. According to the studies, no specific pharmacological and vaccine therapies have been developed to appropriately counteract SARS-CoV-2, with the majority yielding results from in silico, in vitro or in vivo studies, with a small range of case reports or case series. Amongst the hundreds of drugs that are being tested, pharmacological research on the Azithromycin, Ivermectin, Methylprednisolone, Anticoagulants, Remdesivir, Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine and the combination Ribavirin, Lopinavir/Ritonavir & Interferon beta-1b were assayed. Although there are some auspicious pharmacological therapies and, in some cases, an emergency release of such by regulatory agencies, there is still a desideratum for extensive scientific testing with randomized clinical trials to definitively prove the effectiveness of these drugs in combating SARS-CoV-2 in the human body.