Recent Antiviral Treatment and Vaccination Strategies Against SARS-CoV-2

Since the end of 2019, the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been spreading worldwide and has caused severe health and economic issues on a global scale. By the end of February 2021, more than 100 million SARS-CoV-2 cases had been reported worldwide. SARS-CoV-2 causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that can be divided into three phases: An early phase with fever and cough (phase I), a pulmonary vascular disease (phase II) and a hyperinflammatory syndrome (phase III). Since viral replication plays a particularly important role in the early stage of the disease and the patient's immune system in the later course of infection, different therapeutic options arise depending on the stage of the disease. The antiviral nucleoside analogue remdesivir is the only antiviral compound with conditional approval in the European Union. Treatment with remdesivir should be initiated early (within the first seven days of symptom onset) in patients receiving supplemental oxygen without invasive ventilation. In turn, the anti-inflammatory corticosteroid dexamethasone should be administered later in the course of disease in patients receiving oxygen therapy. Since autopsies indicate an increased frequency of thromboembolic events due to COVID-19, additional treatment with anticoagulants is recommended. Since the development of novel antivirals may take years, the application of convalescent plasma from patients who recovered from a SARS-CoV-2 infection for the treatment of COVID-19 is reasonable. However, large-scale studies indicated low efficacy of convalescent plasma. Furthermore, vaccination of the population is essential to control the pandemic. Currently, the mRNA vaccine Tozinameran from BioNTech and Pfizer, the mRNA-1273 vaccine from Moderna as well as the vector vaccine AZD1222 from AstraZeneca are licensed in the European Union. All three vaccines have demonstrated high efficacy in large clinical trials. In addition to these licensed vaccines, many others are being tested in clinical trials. In the present article, an overview of therapeutic options for COVID-19 as well as vaccines for protection against SARS-CoV-2 is provided.