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Gallium Components-Based Drug Delivery: A Potential Treatment for Covid-19 Publisher Pubmed



Torabi S1 ; Bahreini F2, 3 ; Rezaei N3, 4, 5
Authors
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Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  2. 2. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
  3. 3. Network of Immunity in Infection, Malignancy and Autoimmunity (NIIMA), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran
  4. 4. Research Center for Immunodeficiencies (RCID), Children’s Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  5. 5. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Source: Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets Published:2022


Abstract

With severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) showing new characteristics and manifesting new variants, the efficacy of vaccination can be reduced. In the meanwhile, no SARS-CoV-2-specific drug has been introduced in the fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) yet, and currently used drugs have also shown serious side effects in patients under treatment. Thus, it is pivotal to continue researching potential therapeutics to treat COVID-19. Recent-ly, studies have shown that Gallium maltolate disrupts the replication of SARS-CoV-2 and therefore has antiviral activity against this virus. Nevertheless, as Gallium compounds have manifested serious side effects in the human body (e.g., hemoglobin synthesis dysfunction and pulmonary complications), drug delivery methods should be recruited to minimize the possible side effects and to optimize the efficacy of the drug in the fight against COVID-19. Liposomes, as nanocarriers, not only increase the half-life of the conjugated compound but also have shown promising features in the delivery of COVID-19-specific drugs to the target tissue. Herein, we propose that conjugation of Gallium malto-late with liposome nanocarriers can be beneficial to target tissues infected with SARS-CoV-2. © 2022.