PHARMACOLOGIST'S VIEW OF THE NEW CORONA VIRUS

  • Prof. dr Rajko Igić Prof. Rajko Igić igicrajko@gmail.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/scriptamed51-25852

Sažetak


To the editor,

Despite many advances in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, the global spread of infections is accelerated by close contact among concentrated populations. A pandemic caused by a new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread across the globe. This new disease attributed to COVID-19 emerged a century after the Spanish flu pandemic, which affected one-third of the world's population, killing more than 50 million people.1 The disease, caused by the H1N1 virus, has been around for less than two years and it is still unclear what contributed to its termination; possibly a mutation of the virus reduced its viral strength. Since information about biological sciences and human medicine is far more advanced today than at the beginning of the 20th century, it is expected that the current pandemic will be contained, regardless of the potential for viral mutation. Scientists and doctors now face an urgent task - how to treat numerous sick people and stop the spread of this infection. The pandemic urgently requires identification of preventive measures, along with optimum means of diagnosis and treatment and data on dissemination of the infection, duration of incubation, clinical features of the disease, along with the best means of diagnosis and treatment for a very large number of people, and ultimately the long lasting consequences of the disease. In addition, we must identify pathways for the spread of the virus, its persistence on various surfaces and means of its inactivation.2

Reference

Taubenberger JK, Kash JC, Morens DM. The 1918 influenza pandemic: 100 years of questions answered and unanswered. Sci Transl Med 2019;11(502). doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau5485.
Kampf G, Todt D, Pfaender S, Steinmann E. Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents. J Hosp Infect 2020;104(3):246-51.
Hui DS, Azhar EI, Madani TA, Ntoumi F, Kock R, Dar O, et al. The continuing 2019-nCoV epidemic threat of novel coronaviruses to global health — the latest 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. Int J Infect Dis 2020;91:264-6.
Zumla A, Hui DS, Azhar EI, Memish ZA, Maeurer M. Reducing mortality from 2019-nCoV: host-directed therapies should be an option. Lancet 2020 Feb 22;395(10224):e35-e36. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30305-6.
Gao J, Yang ZTX. Breakthrough: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies. BioSci Trends 2020;14(1):72-3.
Gautret P, Lagier J-C, Parola P, Hoang VT, Meddeb L, Mailhe M, et al. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an openlabel non-randomized clinical trial. Int J Antimicrob Agents 2020 Mar 20:105949. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105949.
Bailly C. Cepharanthine: An update of its mode of action, pharmacological properties and medical applications. Phytomedicine 2019 Sep;62:152956. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2019.152956.
Hoffmann M, Kleine-Weber H, Schroeder S, Krüger N, Herrler T, Erichsen S, et al. SARS-CoV-2 cell entry depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and is blocked by a clinically proven protease inhibitor. Cell 2020 Mar 4. pii: S0092-8674(20)30229-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.02.052.
Igić R. [Pharmacology of the renin-angiotensin system]. Banja Luka: Faculty of Medicine, University of Banja Luka; 2014.
Thomson GA. Where are we now with COVID-19? Int J Clin Pract 2020 Mar 11:e13497. doi: 10.1111/ijcp.13497.
Stein RA. The 2019 coronavirus: learning curves, lessons, and the weakest link. Int J Clin Pract 2020 Apr;74(4):e13488. doi: 10.1111/ijcp.13488.
Objavljeno
2020/03/27
Broj časopisa
Vol. 51 Br. 1 (2020)
Rubrika
Pismo uredniku
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).