TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19: Current Developments and Further Opportunities in Drug Delivery and Therapeutics
AU - Zafar, Saman
AU - Arshad, Muhammad Sohail
AU - Fatima, Sameen
AU - Ali, Amna
AU - Zaman, Aliyah
AU - Sayed, Elshaimaa
AU - Chang, Ming-Wei
AU - Ahmad, Zeeshan
PY - 2020/10/3
Y1 - 2020/10/3
N2 - SARS-CoV-2 has affected people from all age groups, races and ethnicities. Given that many infected individuals are asymptomatic, they transmit the disease to others unknowingly, which has resulted in the spread of infection at an alarming rate. This review aims to provide an overview of the pathophysiology, preventive measures to reduce the disease spread, therapies currently in use, an update on vaccine development and opportunities for vaccine delivery. The World Health Organization has advised several precautions including social distancing, hand washing and the use of PPE including gloves and face masks for minimizing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. At present, several antiviral therapies previously approved for other infections are being repositioned to study their efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. In addition, some medicines (i.e., remdesivir, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine) have received emergency use authorisation from the FDA. Plasma therapy has also been authorised for emergency use for the treatment of COVID-19 on a smaller scale. However, no vaccine has been approved so far against this virus. Nevertheless, several potential vaccine targets have been reported, and development of different types of vaccines including DNA, mRNA, viral vector, inactivated, subunit and vaccine-like particles is in process. It is concluded that a suitable candidate delivered through an advanced drug delivery approach would effectively boost the immune system against this coronavirus.
AB - SARS-CoV-2 has affected people from all age groups, races and ethnicities. Given that many infected individuals are asymptomatic, they transmit the disease to others unknowingly, which has resulted in the spread of infection at an alarming rate. This review aims to provide an overview of the pathophysiology, preventive measures to reduce the disease spread, therapies currently in use, an update on vaccine development and opportunities for vaccine delivery. The World Health Organization has advised several precautions including social distancing, hand washing and the use of PPE including gloves and face masks for minimizing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. At present, several antiviral therapies previously approved for other infections are being repositioned to study their efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. In addition, some medicines (i.e., remdesivir, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine) have received emergency use authorisation from the FDA. Plasma therapy has also been authorised for emergency use for the treatment of COVID-19 on a smaller scale. However, no vaccine has been approved so far against this virus. Nevertheless, several potential vaccine targets have been reported, and development of different types of vaccines including DNA, mRNA, viral vector, inactivated, subunit and vaccine-like particles is in process. It is concluded that a suitable candidate delivered through an advanced drug delivery approach would effectively boost the immune system against this coronavirus.
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - COVID-19
KW - coronavirus
KW - infection
KW - immunization
KW - immune response
KW - vaccine
KW - drug delivery
U2 - 10.3390/pharmaceutics12100945
DO - 10.3390/pharmaceutics12100945
M3 - Book/Film/Article review
C2 - 33023033
SN - 1999-4923
VL - 12
JO - Pharmaceutics
JF - Pharmaceutics
IS - 10
M1 - 945
ER -