Analysis data of mechanism of drugs recommended for the treatment of COVID-19

• Olga A. Radaeva
• Yulia A. Kostina

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to analyze the data of scientific articles on medicines indicated as etiotropic and approved for outpatient use within the framework of temporary methodological recommendations for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a new coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation.

Material and methods. A systematic search of literature was carried out on the databases MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, GHL, OpenGrey, ICTRP and ClinicalTrials.gov until April 2021. 37 779 articles were indexed in the ScienceDirect database (keywords: SARS-CoV-2), of which (pre-press) – 2023 (2), 2022 (69), published in 2021 (19 642 articles ), in 2020 (12,966 articles). The search was carried out using the following keywords: Favipiravir – 1622 publications, Umifenovir – 387 publications, which indicates a high interest in the problem of new coronavirus infection in general and its drug (etiotropic) therapy, in particular.

Results. The conducted analysis demonstrates that drugs based on favipiravir have a larger number of studies proving its effectiveness in different clinical groups of patients with COVID-19, while it is important to note the breadth of the geography of published works, which allows us to speak about the reproducibility of the results. Drugs from this group have a direct antiviral effect with the studied target of action (i.e., most likely, the principle of etiotropic therapy is implemented).

Conclusion. The search for new drugs, as well as the expansion of information about the mechanisms of action of previously known molecules, is the basis for the development of COVID-19 therapy regimens with maximum efficiency and safety.

Keywords:SARS-CoV-2, antiviral therapy, favipiravir, umifenovir, interferon alfa-2b

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