Oxytocin as a Potential Adjuvant against COVID-19 Infection.

Thakur, Pratibha; Shrivastava, Renu; Shrivastava, Vinoy Kumar

This article summarizes the benefits of Oxytocin (OT) in the attenuation of coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) pathogenesis. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has become pandemic with 7,323,761 of infected patients and has created health emergency throughout the world. On the basis of clinical study, COVID-19 shows homology with other coronavirus pathogenesis i.e. inflammation, oxidative stress, and hyper-activation of immune system, results cytokine storm and causes acute lung infection (ALI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and kidney dysfunction. OT is a peptide of nine amino acid, well known anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and immune-modulator molecule protective against ALI/ARDS, nephrotoxicity, sepsis, and ischemia-reperfusion medical condition. OT is a neuromodulatory, effective for stress, anxiety, social behaviour, and depression, which might be helpful for better output of COVID-19 patients. There is significant data showing OT would be useful for treatment of COVID-19 pathogenesis. Direct application of OT in COVID19 is unclear, but its use in experimental model as well as human has continuously documented its safety, and its use by COVID-19 patients predictably would be highly beneficial.