Current Insights into the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Its Homoeopathic Management

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (03) ◽  
pp. 171-179
Author(s):  
Sanjay Kumar Dey ◽  
Joy Kumar Dey ◽  
Hitaishi Sihag

AbstractSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a new coronavirus strain that has not been ever found in humans before December 2019. Both the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case fatality rate and deaths per million population in the top 10 affected countries are increasing a lot due to ever-increasing number of new cases among countries facilitated by increased affinity of SARS-CoV-2 to bind human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. While human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 happens through close contact with an infected individual who spreads respiratory droplets through air or other means, its diagnosis relies mainly on detection of nucleic acid. Repurposing drugs such as dexamethasone, remdesivir, favipiravir and TMPRSS2 (trans membrane protease, serine 2) protease inhibitors have been shown to be effective for the treatment of COVID-19 with albeit requirement of further studies to conclude their complete effectiveness. Personal protective measures should be followed to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additionally, hundreds of clinical trials of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are undergoing, while plasma therapy from the COVID-19 survivors is also being tried to treat the severely affected patients. In addition to these aforementioned modern medicines and therapeutic approaches, homoeopathy also holds promising anti-viral effect as evident from its success against flu and other epidemics, historically. Therefore, present article provides a glimpse of advancements made in the area of homoeopathic ways of treating COVID-19 by summarising the recent homoeopathic clinical, research trials and future scopes of homoeopathy to combat the pandemic. After critical review of most of the ongoing or recently completed homoeopathic treatment efforts against SARS-CoV-2, it was identified that Bryonia alba, Arsenicum album and Gelsemium sempervirens are working best among homoeopathic medicines till now. These studies are also suggesting an increased application of these remedies to treat the current pandemic worldwide; therefore, more such studies are warranted. Those further research will pave the way to understand the mechanism of each of these homoeopathic drugs to cure COVID-19 facilitated by optimising their doses, effects and find the best among these multiple options in homoeopathic medicines for plausible mono- or combination therapies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1627-1634
Author(s):  
Megha Dipak Rudey ◽  
Renu Rathi ◽  
Bharat Rathi

COVID-19 (Novel coronavirus or corona disease is spreading continuously all over the world. Overloading of ICU and health care system capacity. Along with age factor, community spread, vertical transmission of disease and clinical manifestation is the risk factor for the poor outcomes. The transmission is mainly through respiratory droplets when individual sneezes or coughs and also due to the close contact with an infected individual. Every researcher is in found of preventive measure, and in found of effective treatment for it. As the population is rushing to keep themselves protected from the infection, Ayurveda practitioners are in stress that the kalpas cited in Ayurveda literature will be helpful in strengthening the immunity and to fight against COVID-19. It is an attempt to study the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) it's clinical diagnostic and management in Ayurveda perspective. Various Samhitas, such as Charaka Samhita, Ashtanga Hridaya, Madhava Nidana  articles were referred for this study. According to Ayurveda literature, a unique method of impending a fresh identified illness Rather than centring on the bacteriological etiology, Ayurveda encirclements a universal skill for particularising the details of the illness at hand. Till the date, no vaccination is being found for COVID-19 yet, but the concepts given in Vedas have information about diagnostic and management. This attempt is to encourage Ayurveda  practitioners and young researcher’s to work on the formulations, which are cited thousands of years ago to breakdown the pathology of disease and work for the development and promotion of Ayurveda.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 977-982
Author(s):  
Mohamed J. Saadh ◽  
Bashar Haj Rashid M ◽  
Roa’a Matar ◽  
Sajeda Riyad Aldibs ◽  
Hala Sbaih ◽  
...  

SARS-COV2 virus causes Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and represents the causative agent of a potentially fatal disease that is of great global public health concern. The novel coronavirus (2019) was discovered in 2019 in Wuhan, the market of the wet animal, China with viral pneumonia cases and is life-threatening. Today, WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. COVID-19 is likely to be zoonotic. It is transmitted from bats as intermediary animals to human. Also, the virus is transmitted from human to human who is in close contact with others. The computerized tomographic chest scan is usually abnormal even in those with no symptoms or mild disease. Treatment is nearly supportive; the role of antiviral agents is yet to be established. The SARS-COV2 virus spreads faster than its two ancestors, the SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), but has lower fatality. In this article, we aimed to summarize the transmission, symptoms, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine to control the spread of this fatal disease.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Zhi-Ling Zhu ◽  
Xiao-Dan Qiu ◽  
Shuo Wu ◽  
Yi-Tong Liu ◽  
Ting Zhao ◽  
...  

The novel coronavirus disease (2019-nCoV) has been affecting global health since the end of 2019, and there is no sign that the epidemic is abating. Targeting the interaction between the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein and the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor is a promising therapeutic strategy. In this study, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was used as the primary method to screen a library of 960 compounds. A compound 02B05 (demethylzeylasteral, CAS number: 107316-88-1) that had high affinities for S-RBD and ACE2 was discovered, and binding affinities (KD, μM) of 02B05-ACE2 and 02B05-S-RBD were 1.736 and 1.039 μM, respectively. The results of a competition experiment showed that 02B05 could effectively block the binding of S-RBD to ACE2 protein. Furthermore, pseudovirus infection assay revealed that 02B05 could inhibit entry of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus into 293T cells to a certain extent at nontoxic concentration. The compoundobtained in this study serve as references for the design of drugs which have potential in the treatment of COVID-19 and can thus accelerate the process of developing effective drugs to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Badawi ◽  
Bassam R. Ali

AbstractWith the emergence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 since December 2019, more than 65 million cases have been reported worldwide. This virus has shown high infectivity and severe symptoms in some cases, leading to over 1.5 million deaths globally. Despite the collaborative and concerted research efforts that have been made, no effective medication for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease-2019) is currently available. SARS-CoV-2 uses the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as an initial mediator for viral attachment and host cell invasion. ACE2 is widely distributed in the human tissues including the cell surface of lung cells which represent the primary site of the infection. Inhibiting or reducing cell surface availability of ACE2 represents a promising therapy for tackling COVID-19. In this context, most ACE2–based therapeutic strategies have aimed to tackle the virus through the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or neutralizing the virus by exogenous administration of ACE2, which does not directly aim to reduce its membrane availability. However, through this review, we present a different perspective focusing on the subcellular localization and trafficking of ACE2. Membrane targeting of ACE2, and shedding and cellular trafficking pathways including the internalization are not well elucidated in literature. Therefore, we hereby present an overview of the fate of newly synthesized ACE2, its post translational modifications, and what is known of its trafficking pathways. In addition, we highlight the possibility that some of the identified ACE2 missense variants might affect its trafficking efficiency and localization and hence may explain some of the observed variable severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Moreover, an extensive understanding of these processes is necessarily required to evaluate the potential use of ACE2 as a credible therapeutic target.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Esraa M. O. A. Ismail ◽  
Shaza W. Shantier ◽  
Mona S. Mohammed ◽  
Hassan H. Musa ◽  
Wadah Osman ◽  
...  

The recent outbreak of the highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has created a global health crisis with socioeconomic impacts. Although, recently, vaccines have been approved for the prevention of COVID-19, there is still an urgent need for the discovery of more efficacious and safer drugs especially from natural sources. In this study, a number of quinoline and quinazoline alkaloids with antiviral and/or antimalarial activity were virtually screened against three potential targets for the development of drugs against COVID-19. Among seventy-one tested compounds, twenty-three were selected for molecular docking based on their pharmacokinetic and toxicity profiles. The results identified a number of potential inhibitors. Three of them, namely, norquinadoline A, deoxytryptoquivaline, and deoxynortryptoquivaline, showed strong binding to the three targets, SARS-CoV-2 main protease, spike glycoprotein, and human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. These alkaloids therefore have promise for being further investigated as possible multitarget drugs against COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121
Author(s):  
Sumaiya Yasin ◽  
Theophilus Bhatti ◽  
Muhammad Umer Farooqi ◽  
Farrukh Mateen

Recent worldwide outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (CoVID-19) has affected massive human population including Pakistan, and has caused a huge number of mortalities in few months. CoVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which is single stranded RNA enveloped beta coronavirus and affects lower respiratory tract. It transmits from human to human through respiratory droplets. It uses its S-protein to recognize ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme-2) receptors in lung epithelial cells where it attaches and causes infection. The incubation period is 2-14 days. In pre-symptomatic phase, body’s immune system starts antibodies production. Significant antibodies are IgM and IgG that produces within 03-06 days and 8-12 days respectively. This review provides the available information about immunological aspects in terms of diagnosis and screening of CoVID-19 and potential therapeutic targets for combating SARS-CoV-2 infection. Immunologic techniques to detect these antibodies are ELISA (Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay), CMIA (Chemiluminescent Micro particle Immunoassay) and ICT (Immunochromatographic Test). Among these, ELISA and CMIA are found to be highly specific and sensitive in convalescent phase of infection. While the fundamental confirmatory test for SARS-CoV-2 infection is RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) which detects the viral RNA in respiratory samples preferably nasopharyngeal swab. Serological assays are essential to find out rate of infection, and most importantly antibody titers in recovered patients to be used for therapeutic purpose. After some successful studies Convalescent Plasma is considered as a good therapeutic option in the absence of specific antiviral therapy.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyi Guo ◽  
Zhishan Chen ◽  
Yumin Xia ◽  
Weiqiang Lin ◽  
Hongzhi Li

Abstract Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), through its surface spike glycoprotein (S-protein) recognition on the receptor Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in humans. However, it remains unclear how genetic variations in ACE2 may affect its function and structure, and consequently alter the recognition by SARS-CoV-2. Methods: We have systemically characterized missense variants in the gene ACE2 using data from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD; N = 141,456). To investigate the putative deleterious role of missense variants, six existing functional prediction tools were applied to evaluate their impact. We further analyzed the structural flexibility of ACE2 and its protein-protein interface with the S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 using our developed Legion Interfaces Analysis (LiAn) program.Results: Here, we characterized a total of 12 ACE2 putative deleterious missense variants. Of those 12 variants, we further showed that p.His378Arg could directly weaken the binding of catalytic metal atom to decrease ACE2 activity and p.Ser19Pro could distort the most important helix to the S-protein. Another seven missense variants may affect secondary structures (i.e. p.Gly211Arg; p.Asp206Gly; p.Arg219Cys; p.Arg219His, p.Lys341Arg, p.Ile468Val, and p.Ser547Cys), whereas p.Ile468Val with AF = 0.01 is only present in Asian.Conclusions: We provide strong evidence of putative deleterious missense variants in ACE2 that are present in specific populations, which could disrupt the function and structure of ACE2. These findings provide novel insight into the genetic variation in ACE2 which may affect the SARS-CoV-2 recognition and infection, and COVID-19 susceptibility and treatment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sajjad Eslamkhah ◽  
Nazila Alizadeh ◽  
Khalil Hajiasgharzadeh ◽  
Masoud Eslamkhah ◽  
Ahad Mokhtarzadeh ◽  
...  

A series of cases of pneumonia occurred in China in late 2019. For this type of coronavirus, the WHO formally identified the condition as a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). They announced that this disease is the recent main concern of health problems in the world. Transfer of this novel coronavirus (nCoV) from human to human exists predominantly among family members, who have close contact with each other. This review article is provided based on the recent findings of COVID-19, which were retrieved by searching PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science until December 2020. Here, we highlighted the coronaviruses types, COVID-19 symptoms, epidemiology of the disease, transmission ways, and nCoV related pneumonia pathogenesis and continue with characteristic features and treatment methods. While no approved treatments are available for this type of infection therapy but several drugs may have potential benefits. It seems that identifying the detailed characteristics of the novel coronavirus disease offers the foundation for further research into the production of effective anti-COVID-19 drugs and vaccines.


Author(s):  
Shuichiro Shiina ◽  
Rino A. Gani ◽  
Osamu Yokosuka ◽  
Hitoshi Maruyama ◽  
Hiroaki Nagamatsu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background COVID-19 has been giving the devastating impact on the current medical care system. There are quite many guidelines on COVID-19, but only a few on the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) during COVID-19 pandemic. Aims We develop these recommendations to preserve adequate clinical practice for the management of HCC. Methods Experts of HCC in the Asia–Pacific region exchanged opinions via webinar, and these recommendations were formed. Results Close contact should be minimized to reduce possible exposure of both medical staff and patients to the novel coronavirus. To prevent transmission of the virus, meticulous hygiene measures are important. With the decrease in regular medical service, the medical staff may be mobilized to provide COVID-19-related patient care. However, diagnosis and treatment of HCC should not be delayed because of COVID-19 pandemic. The management of HCC should be the same as in non-pandemic circumstances. HCC is highly malignant, thus it is recommended not to delay curative treatment such as surgery and ablation. However, a kind of triage is necessary even among patients with HCC when resources are insufficient for all to be treated. Curative treatments should be periodized and cytoreductive or non-curative treatment such as vascular interventions and systemic therapy may be postponed until it can be performed safely with sufficient resources. For patients with confirmed or suspected to be infected with the novel coronavirus, diagnosis and treatment should be postponed until the virus is eliminated or they are confirmed as not being infected with it. Conclusions These are collection of measures implemented by front-line medical professionals. We would evolve these recommendations over time as more real-world data becomes available.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Alexander Kamyshnyi ◽  
Inna Krynytska ◽  
Victoriya Matskevych ◽  
Mariya Marushchak ◽  
Oleh Lushchak

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is an ongoing global public health challenge. Current clinical data suggest that, in COVID-19 patients, arterial hypertension (AH) is one of the most common cardiovascular comorbidities; it can worsen outcomes and increase the risk of admission to intensive care unit (ICU). The exact mechanisms through which AH contributes to the poor prognosis in COVID-19 are not yet clear. The putative relationship between AH and COVID-19 may be linked to the role of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a key element of the AH pathophysiology. Another mechanism connecting AH and COVID-19 is the dysregulation of the immune system resulting in a cytokine storm, mediated by an imbalanced response of T helper cells subtypes. Therefore, it is essential to optimize blood pressure control in hypertensive patients and monitor them carefully for cardiovascular and other complications for the duration of COVID-19 infection. The question whether AH-linked ACE2 gene polymorphisms increase the risk and/or worsen the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection should also receive further consideration.


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