COVID-19: Current treatment strategies

Outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China in December 2019 has become a major health emergency of international concern & millions of people around the globe have been affected by the viral infection. Looking at the magnitude and severity of the disease, scientist’s world wide are tirelessly working for some therapeutic breakthroughs in this arena. However, till date there has been no sure shot remedy for this highly infective disease. The novel corona virus (SARS‐CoV‐2) has crossed the species barriers and has infected humans; which has caused millions of people getting affected by the infection. Multiple factors make this virus difficult to treat and prevent, one of the reason for it is difficulty in tracing the intermediate host in the actual origin of the virus. Understanding of the basic structural binding mechanism of the virus to the host gives the clue for varied range of hosts that the virus may bind to (virus reservoirs). This will further lead us to design countermeasure against the virus. A cryoelectron microscopic study done by Wrapp D et al. has reported that that the binding capacity of SARS‐CoV‐2 S protein to ACE2 which is human surface receptor is much stronger than that of SARS‐CoV, which shows that there are more intermediate hosts for SARS‐CoV‐2. Liu et al. in their article has stated that From SARS‐CoV and MERS‐CoV to SARS‐CoV‐2, all point to bats as the natural host of coronaviruses, but the intermediate hosts for all are different. The article points at snakes, turtles to be more likely & pangolins or civattes for less likely being the intermediates for SARS‐CoV‐2. This article aims to summarize all the drugs and therapies that are presently under consideration and also under trials for the treatment of the disease. Some of the treatment modalities that are currently in use are-