New perspective towards therapeutic regimen against SARS-CoV-2 infection

Role of artificial intelligence in early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases

Infectious diseases remain a global health challenge, necessitating innovative approaches for their early diagnosis and effective treatment. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force in healthcare, offering promising solutions to address this challenge. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of the pivotal role AI can play in the early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. It explores how AI-driven diagnostic tools, including machine learning algorithms, deep learning, and image recognition systems, enhance the accuracy and efficiency of disease detection and surveillance. Furthermore, it delves into the potential of AI to predict disease outbreaks, optimise treatment strategies, and personalise interventions based on individual patient data and how AI can be used to gear up the drug discovery and development (D3) process.The ethical considerations, challenges, and limitations associated with the integration of AI in infectious disease management are also examined. By harnessing the capabilities of AI, healthcare systems can significantly improve their preparedness, responsiveness, and outcomes in the battle against infectious diseases.

Effectiveness of Drug Repurposing and Natural Products Against SARS-CoV-2: A Comprehensive Review

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a betacoronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, causing respiratory disorders, and even death in some individuals, if not appropriately treated in time. To face the pandemic, preventive measures have been taken against contagions and the application of vaccines to prevent severe disease and death cases. For the COVID-19 treatment, antiviral, antiparasitic, anticoagulant and other drugs have been reused due to limited specific medicaments for the disease. Drug repurposing is an emerging strategy with therapies that have already tested safe in humans. One promising alternative for systematic experimental screening of a vast pool of compounds is computational drug repurposing (in silico assay). Using these tools, new uses for approved drugs such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, zidovudine, ribavirin, lamivudine, remdesivir, lopinavir and tenofovir/emtricitabine have been conducted, showing effectiveness in vitro and in silico against SARS-CoV-2 and some of these, also in clinical trials. Additionally, therapeutic options have been sought in natural products (terpenoids, alkaloids, saponins and phenolics) with promising in vitro and in silico results for use in COVID-19 disease. Among these, the most studied are resveratrol, quercetin, hesperidin, curcumin, myricetin and betulinic acid, which were proposed as SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors. Among the drugs reused to control the SARS-CoV2, better results have been observed for remdesivir in hospitalized patients and outpatients. Regarding natural products, resveratrol, curcumin, and quercetin have demonstrated in vitro antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 and in vivo, a nebulized formulation has demonstrated to alleviate the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19. This review shows the evidence of drug repurposing efficacy and the potential use of natural products as a treatment for COVID-19. For this, a search was carried out in PubMed, SciELO and ScienceDirect databases for articles about drugs approved or under study and natural compounds recognized for their antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2.

A review on the current approaches and perspectives of Covid-19 treatment

At the beginning of 2020, the world was faced with the challenge of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic announced by the WHO on March 11, caused by the betacoronavirus type 2 of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), which had profound health, sociological and even economic consequences. The quickly implemented and large-scale research resulted in the introduction of widely available vaccines that reduced the further development of the pandemic and antivirals against SARS-CoV-2. Currently, 11 antiviral drugs (Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab, Regdanvimab, Casirivimab/Imdevimab, Sotrovimab, Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir, Remdesivir, Molnupiravir, Baricitinib, Anakinra, Tocilizumab, Vilobelimab) have been approved or conditionally approved by the European Medicines Agency and/or by the Food and Drug Administration and are available on the pharmaceutical market. The progress in the pathophysiological description of the SARS-CoV-2 infection has allowed the identif i cation of potential targets for drugs against SARS-CoV-2: inhibitors of intracellular entry of the virus (the interaction between the viral spike (S) protein and the cellular angiotensin converting enzyme-2; ACE2 receptor), inhibitors of viral and cellular proteases, and immunomodulatory drugs (antagonists of pro-inf l ammatory cytokines or complement components). Novel agents against SARS-CoV-2 are also sought among the previously routinely used drugs as their repositioning and among plant-derived compounds. It is expected that ongoing research should result in the introduction of new drugs used in COVID-19 in the near future. The article brief l y describes the current epidemiological situation regarding COVID-19 and the currently used vaccines. Moreover, the paper outlines currently used and researched potential drugs in the pharmacotherapy of this disease.

Zebrafish models of COVID-19

Although COVID-19 has only recently appeared, research studies have already developed and implemented many animal models for deciphering the secrets of the disease and provided insights into the biology of SARS-CoV-2. However, there are several major factors that complicate the study of this virus in model organisms, such as the poor infectivity of clinical isolates of SARS-CoV-2 in some model species, and the absence of persistent infection, immunopathology, severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, and, in general, all the systemic complications which characterize COVID-19 clinically. Another important limitation is that SARS-CoV-2 mainly causes severe COVID-19 in older people with comorbidities, which represents a serious problem when attempting to use young and immunologically naïve laboratory animals in COVID-19 testing. We review here the main animal models developed so far to study COVID-19 and the unique advantages of the zebrafish model that may help to contribute to understand this disease, in particular to the identification and repurposing of drugs to treat COVID-19, to reveal the mechanism of action and side-effects of Spike-based vaccines, and to decipher the high susceptibility of aged people to COVID-19.