COVID-19 pandemic: How close are we for an effective therapy?

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

© The Author(s). 2020 Content licensing: CC BY 4.0 Coronaviruses are a type of RNA virus found in avis, mammals, and humans, causing upper-respiratory tract infections. In humans infection in the respiratory system can range from mild to lethal [1]. Six major types of viruses affecting humans are documented. Among these six members, four (HKU1, 229E, NL63, and OC43) cause cold and flu like symptoms [2], while rest two are responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Coronavirus) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) [3]. There is a high probability of coronavirus pandemic recurrence because of it’s zoonotic nature and the genetic variation [4]. COVID-19 is spreading quickly across the globe, but unfortunately, we have only limited specific tools for controlling and managing this ongoing epidemic. Most countries follow the same quarantine strategy, isolation, and social distancing to prevent the disease spread and care for the sick. No SARS‐CoV‐2 treatment is officially endorsed, but already approved medicines are being investigated for the efficacy in various clinical trials. Nucleoside analogs, interferon, plays an immune modulatory role and commonly used drugs for malaria with antiviral activity like chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine we are using as a treatment option.