European journal of clinical pharmacology
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Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. · Dec 2020
ReviewInhibition of SARS-CoV-2 entry through the ACE2/TMPRSS2 pathway: a promising approach for uncovering early COVID-19 drug therapies.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is urging the scientific community worldwide to intense efforts for identifying and developing effective drugs and pharmacologic strategies to treat the disease. Many of the drugs that are currently in (pre)clinical development are addressing late symptoms of the disease. This review focuses on potential pharmacologic intervention at an early stage of infection which could result in less-infected individuals and less cases with severe COVID-19 disease due to reduced virus entry into the cells. ⋯ Several agents have potential for prophylactic and therapeutic intervention at the early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease and they should be urgently investigated further in appropriate preclinical models and clinical studies.