Lopinavir/ritonavir: Repurposing an old drug for HIV infection in COVID-19 treatment.
Biomed J
; 44(1): 43-53, 2021 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33608241
ABSTRACT
Currently, there is no specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19. However, drugs previously developed to treat other viral infections are being tested to verify if they might also be effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Twenty years ago, the F.D.A. approved Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) to treat HIV infection. LPV and ritonavir were initially purposed to inhibit 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV and preliminary promising data on its efficacy for treating people infected with those viruses were available. Therefore, due to the high genetic similarities among those viruses and SARS-CoV-2, early during COVID-19 pandemic LPV/r was also proposed as one emergency treatment. We reviewed data from the literature about LPV/r treatment and SARS-CoV-2 infection, mainly focused on the efficacy and safety of this drugs for COVID-19 treatment. We can conclude that although up to date no clear benefit has been observed with the LPV/r treatment beyond standard care, its efficacy against SARS-COV-2 infection deserves further evaluations, particularly during the very early phase of the disease.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
HIV Infections
/
Ritonavir
/
Drug Repositioning
/
Lopinavir
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Biomed J
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italia