Repurposed Drugs, Molecular Vaccines, Immune‐Modulators, and Nanotherapeutics to Treat and Prevent COVID‐19 Associated with SARS‐CoV‐2, a Deadly Nanovector

Dube, Taru; Ghosh, Amrito; Mishra, Jibanananda; Kompella, Uday B.; Panda, Jiban Jyoti

The deadly pandemic, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), caused due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), has paralyzed the world. Although significant methodological advances have been made in the field of viral detection/diagnosis with 251 in vitro diagnostic tests receiving emergency use approval by the US‐FDA, little progress has been made in identifying curative or preventive therapies. This review discusses the current trends and potential future approaches for developing COVID‐19 therapeutics, including repurposed drugs, vaccine candidates, immune‐modulators, convalescent plasma therapy, and antiviral nanoparticles/nanovaccines/combinatorial nanotherapeutics to surmount the pandemic viral strain. Many potent therapeutic candidates emerging via drug‐repurposing could significantly reduce the cost and duration of anti‐COVID‐19 drug development. Gene/protein‐based vaccine candidates that could elicit both humoral and cell‐based immunity would be on the frontlines to prevent the disease. Many emerging nanotechnology‐based interventions will be critical in the fight against the deadly virus by facilitating early detection and enabling target oriented multidrug therapeutics. The therapeutic candidates discussed in this article include remdesivir, dexamethasone, hydroxychloroquine, favilavir, lopinavir/ritonavir, antibody therapeutics like gimsilumab and TJM2, anti‐viral nanoparticles, and nanoparticle‐based DNA and mRNA vaccines.