SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) treatment: a patent review

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Coronavirus has been responsible for several virus outbreaks since 2003, caused by SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, and currently SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), the causative agent of coronavirus disease in 2019. COVID-19 has become a global public health emergency because of its high virulence and mortality capacity. This patent review aims to provide an overview of the patents that present possible treatments for SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV.

Areas covered

To treat SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2, researchers have filed patents for a number of therapeutic agents. Most of the treatments found were protease inhibitors aimed at proteases such as PLpro, 3 CLpro, RNA helicase, and Spike protein, or used monoclonal antibodies and interferons. In addition, the use of Chinese folk medicine and its multitude of medicinal plants with strong antiviral properties was reinforced. Thus, these therapies used in previous epidemics can serve as an aid in the new pandemic by SARS-CoV-2 and be a starting point for new treatments.

Expert opinion

The various antiviral alternatives presented in this review offer therapeutic options to fight coronavirus infections. If shown to be effective, these drugs may be extremely important in the current pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronavirus
• CoV
• COVID-19
• MERS
• SARS
• treatments

Article highlights

• CoV has been causing epidemics and deaths for almost two decades through SARS (2003), MERS (2012) and COVID-19 (2019).

• Countries such as China, the Republic of Korea and the United States have a large number of patent deposits because of their active research communities and strong economic situations.

• Proteases are essential for the replication of these viruses, so their inhibitors are strong targets of interest for treatment.

• Therapeutic alternatives such as the use of monoclonal antibodies and interferons also help to combat CoV.

• The use of Chinese folk medicine based on natural products helps to improve symptoms of infection, such as fever, cough, sore throat, and shortness of breath.

• Although the knowledge acquired from the other types of CoV and the treatments described in these patents can help in the current outbreak, further studies and new therapeutic alternatives are still needed.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Author contributions

Conception and design: Mairim Russo Serafini. Analysis, interpretation of the data and draft: José Adão Carvalho Nascimento Júnior and Anamaria Mendonça Santos. Critical review of intellectual content: Lysandro Pinto Borges, Lucindo José Quintans-Júnior and Cristiani Isabel Banderó Walker. Final approval of the version to be published: All authors.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.The authors thank CAPES, FAPITEC/SE and CNPq (Brazil) for their financial support.