AUTHOR=Batiha Gaber El-Saber , Zayed Marwa A. , Awad Aya A. , Shaheen Hazem M. , Mustapha Suleiman , Herrera-Calderon Oscar , Pagnossa Jorge Pamplona , Algammal Abdelazeem M. , Zahoor Muhammad , Adhikari Achyut , Pandey Ishan , Elazab Sara T. , Rengasamy Kannan R. R. , Cruz-Martins Natália , Hetta Helal F. 

TITLE=Management of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Key Focus in Macrolides Efficacy for COVID-19

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.642313

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.642313

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Macrolides (e.g., erythromycin, fidaxomicin, clarithromycin and, azithromycin) are a class of bacteriostatic antibiotics commonly employed in medicine against various gram-positive and atypical bacterial species mostly related to respiratory tract infections, besides to possess anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome of coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was first detected in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019 and resulted in a continuing pandemic. Macrolides have been extensively researched as broad adjunctive therapy for COVID-19 due to its immunostimulant abilities. Among such class of drugs, azithromycin is described as azalide, and is well known for its ability to decrease the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including matrix metalloproteinases, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8. In fact, a report recently published highlighted the effectiveness of combining azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment. Indeed, it has been underlined that azithromycin quickly prevents SARS-CoV-2 infection by raising the levels of both interferons and interferon-stimulated proteins at same time that reduces the virus replication and release. In this sense, the current review aims to evaluate the applications of macrolides for the treatment of COVID-19.