A Review on the Effectivity of the Current COVID-19 Drugs and Vaccines: Are They Really Working Against the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Variants?


Abstract

Purpose of review: In order to eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists around the world have been working very hard for a year or more with the motto of designing effective drugs and vaccines against the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Along with the positive results with the antiviral drugs and a few commercialized vaccines, the unresponsiveness as well as some side effects of such therapies have also been noticed, possibly due to the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 variants. Therefore, current review summarized the actual effectiveness of the antivirals and vaccines which are in current use for the treatment of the COVID-19 patients.

Recent findings: So far, some drugs have been found with hopeful results among which remdesivir and arbidol are with momentous clinical progress. Besides drug designing, vaccine development has been a major effort whereby the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) and BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccines showed the required efficacy and have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Summary: While a number of existing/repurposed/repositioned or new drugs and the currently used commercial vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 apparently seem to be effective against COVID-19 mitigation, the new variants of the virus as well as the recently increased cases raised the doubt about the usefulness of these agents. Current review figured out the efficacy of different drugs and vaccines in terms of their action potential against SARS-CoV-2 and further recommended some useful measures which may be useful for future remedies.

Keywords: Antiviral drugs; COVID-19 pandemic; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccines.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe author declares no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SAR-CoV-2 infection and host immune responses. The network between the innate and adaptive immunity as well as the humoral- and cell-mediated immunity upon SARS-CoV-2 infection has been shown. Details are given in the text.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The ACE-2 and RBD interaction during the initiation of SAR-CoV-2 infection. The associated drugs are shown. Details are given in the text.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic presentation of the mode of actions of mRNA and viral vector vaccines. The mechanism of the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) mRNA-BNT162b2 (BioNTech/Pfizer) vaccines and the viral vector vaccines, i.e., ChAdOx1/AZD1222 (Oxford/AstraZeneca), JNJ-78436735/Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson), and Sputnik V/Gam-Covid-Vac (Gamaleya) are shown. Details are given in the text.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mode of action of the nanoparticle vaccine NVX-CoV2373 (Novavax). Details are given in the text.
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