Repurposing existing medications for coronavirus disease 2019: protocol for a rapid and living systematic review

Benjamin P Geisler; Lara Zahabi; Adam Edward Lang; Naomi Eastwood; Elaine Tennant; Ljiljana Lukic; Elad Sharon; Hai-Hua Chuang; Chang-Berm Kang; Knakita Clayton-Johnson; Ahmed Aljaberi; Haining Yu; Chinh Bui; Tuan Le Mau; Wen-Cheng Li; Debbie Teodorescu; Ludwig Christian Hinske; Dennis L Sun; Farrin A Manian; Adam G Dunn

doi:10.1186/s13643-021-01693-7

Repurposing existing medications for coronavirus disease 2019: protocol for a rapid and living systematic review

Syst Rev. 2021 May 7;10(1):143. doi: 10.1186/s13643-021-01693-7.

Authors

Benjamin P Geisler^{1

2}, Lara Zahabi³, Adam Edward Lang⁴, Naomi Eastwood⁵, Elaine Tennant^{6

7}, Ljiljana Lukic⁸, Elad Sharon⁹, Hai-Hua Chuang^{10

11

12}, Chang-Berm Kang¹³, Knakita Clayton-Johnson¹⁴, Ahmed Aljaberi¹⁵, Haining Yu¹⁶, Chinh Bui¹⁷, Tuan Le Mau¹⁸, Wen-Cheng Li¹⁰, Debbie Teodorescu^{19

17}, Ludwig Christian Hinske²⁰, Dennis L Sun²¹, Farrin A Manian¹⁹, Adam G Dunn²²

Affiliations

¹ Ludwig Maximilian University, Marchionistr. 15, 81377, Munich, Germany. [email protected].
² Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. [email protected].
³ McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
⁴ McDonald Army Health Center, Fort Eustis, VA, USA.
⁵ Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Wirral, UK.
⁶ Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁷ University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁸ University Hospital for Infectious Disease Zagreb "Dr. Fran Mihaljevic", Zagreb, Croatia.
⁹ National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
¹⁰ Chang Gung Memorial Hospital/Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
¹¹ National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
¹² Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.
¹³ Proof Biotechnologies, Inc., Columbia, SC, USA.
¹⁴ Portmore Hospital Complex, Portmore, Jamaica.
¹⁵ Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁶ University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
¹⁷ Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹⁸ Institute of High Performance Computing, Singapore, Singapore.
¹⁹ Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
²⁰ Ludwig Maximilian University, Marchionistr. 15, 81377, Munich, Germany.
²¹ California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
²² University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has no confirmed specific treatments. However, there might be in vitro and early clinical data as well as evidence from severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome that could inform clinicians and researchers. This systematic review aims to create priorities for future research of drugs repurposed for COVID-19.

Methods: This systematic review will include in vitro, animal, and clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of a list of 34 specific compounds and 4 groups of drugs identified in a previous scoping review. Studies will be identified both from traditional literature databases and pre-print servers. Outcomes assessed will include time to clinical improvement, time to viral clearance, mortality, length of hospital stay, and proportions transferred to the intensive care unit and intubated, respectively. We will use the GRADE methodology to assess the quality of the evidence.

Discussion: The challenge posed by COVID-19 requires not just a rapid review of drugs that can be repurposed but also a sustained effort to integrate new evidence into a living systematic review.

Trial registration: PROSPERO 2020 CRD42020175648.

Keywords: COVID-19; MERS-CoV; Middle East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus; Repurposed; Repurposing; SARS; SARS-CoV2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Drug Repositioning
Humans
SARS-CoV-2
Systematic Reviews as Topic

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding