MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES FOR COVID-19 TREATMENT

Abstract

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. With the explosive increase in confirmed cases, the World Health Organization declared this outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, and as a pandemic on March 11 of that same year. Since then, research has been conducted to find valuable drugs against this pathogen. An example is monoclonal antibodies, a powerful tool for treating various conditions like cancer, cancer, autoimmune, neuronal, infectious, and metabolic diseases. In a short time, some showed encouraging results in improving patients' clinical symptoms with this pathology. Various act directly against the virus and others through pharmacological mechanisms associated with its pathophysiology. Its use represents an alternative to reduce hospitalizations and deaths from the infection. There is currently one fully approved (casirivimab and imdevimab, administered together) and three approved for emergency use (bamlanivimab plus etesevimab, administered together; sotrovimab, and tocilizumab) by the US Food and Drug Administration. However, the development of more clinical studies is essential to demonstrate its efficacy and safety in various populations and the study of new molecules.

Key words: COVID-19, World Health Organization, pharmacotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, clinical trials. Source: DeCS, BIREME.