Potential Utility of Radiopharmaceuticals in the Battle Against SARS-Cov-2 and COVID-19 Pandemic
Current Radiopharmaceuticals, cilt.15, sa.2, ss.93-95, 2022 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Editöre Mektup
- Cilt numarası: 15 Sayı: 2
- Basım Tarihi: 2022
- Doi Numarası: 10.2174/1874471014666211011122250
- Dergi Adı: Current Radiopharmaceuticals
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Chemical Abstracts Core, EMBASE, MEDLINE
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.93-95
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Radiopharmaceutical, targeted radiotherapy, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, pandemic, coronavirus
- Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has emerged in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, has significantly affected healthcare systems and economies within a short timeframe. Treatment strategies offer alleviation of symptoms in the absence of com-mercially available specific antiviral agents. Within this context, the introduction of innovative therapeutic approaches against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a critical need that should be addressed ur-gently. The anti-inflammatory effect of low dose irradiation has been proposed as a potential therapeutic strategy for COVID-19 pneumonia. Consideration of external beam irradiation for management of COVID-19 pneumonia has prompted the investigation of alternative methods of irradiation with po-tentially improved toxicity profiles. Theoretically, targeted radiotherapy may have several advan-tages over conventional external beam radiotherapy owing to the capability to deliver effective radiation doses without adverse irradiation effects. Since radionuclides are conjugated to targeting vec-tors, such as antibodies and cell surface receptor binding peptides, irradiation may be focused on targeted cells with optimal sparing of surrounding normal tissues. In the context of COVID-19 man-agement, targeted irradiation is expected to compromise SARS-CoV-2 extracellular virions. Targeted radiotherapy may offer a viable means of combating against SARS-CoV-2 virus. There is room for improvement with the need for efficacy, feasibility, and toxicity studies. Although targeted radiotherapy itself may not achieve absolute eradication of virus or virus-infected cells, it may at least serve as a supplementary therapeutic strategy that could be utilized in combination with other antiviral treatments. Further investigations focusing on nuclear medicine, radiopharmaceuti-cals, and targeted radiotherapy strategies may pave the way for the development of efficacious antiviral treatments which may be utilized in the battle against the current COVID-19 pandemic.