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© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the COVID-19 occurrence as a global pandemic in March 2020. The treatment of SARS-CoV-2 patients is based on the experience gained from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV infection during 2003. There is no clinically accepted therapeutic drug(s) accessible yet for the treatment of COVID-19.

Main body

Corticosteroids, i.e., dexamethasone, methylprednisolone, hydrocortisone and prednisone are used alone or in combination for the treatment of moderate, severe and critically infected COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized and require supplemental oxygen as per current management strategies and guidelines for COVID-19 published by the National Institutes of Health. Corticosteroids are recorded in the WHO model list of essential medicines and are easily accessible worldwide at a cheaper cost in multiple formulations and various dosage forms. Corticosteroid can be used in all age group of patients, i.e., children, adult, elderly and during pregnancy or breastfeeding women. Corticosteroids have potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects in both primary and secondary immune cells, thereby reducing the generation of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines and lowering the activation of T cells, monocytes and macrophages. The corticosteroids should not be used in the treatment of non-severe COVID-19 patients because corticosteroids suppress the immune response and reduce the symptoms and associated side effects such as slow recovery, bacterial infections, hypokalemia, mucormycosis and finally increase the chances of death.

Conclusion

Intensive research on corticosteroid therapy in COVID-19 treatment is urgently needed to elucidate their mechanisms and importance in contributing toward successful prevention and treatment approaches. Hence, this review emphasizes on recent advancement on corticosteroid therapy for defining their importance in overcoming SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, their mechanism, efficacy and extent of corticosteroids in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Details

Title
Corticosteroids for treatment of COVID-19: effect, evidence, expectation and extent
Author
Patel, Vijay K. 1 ; Shirbhate, Ekta 1 ; Patel, Preeti 1 ; Veerasamy, Ravichandran 2 ; Sharma, Prabodh C. 3 ; Rajak, Harish 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Guru Ghasidas University, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Bilaspur, India (GRID:grid.444339.d) (ISNI:0000 0001 0566 818X) 
 AIMST University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Semeling, Bedong, Malaysia (GRID:grid.444449.d) (ISNI:0000 0004 0627 9137) 
 Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, New Delhi, India (GRID:grid.482656.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1800 9353) 
Pages
78
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Dec 2021
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
ISSN
23148535
e-ISSN
23148543
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2788456895
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.