Potential new treatment strategies for COVID-19: is there a role for bromhexine as add-on therapy?

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Depfenhart M, de Villiers D, Lemperle G, Meyer M, Di Somma S

Potential new treatment strategies for COVID-19: is there a role for bromhexine as add-on therapy?

Intern Emerg Med. 2020 Aug;15(5):801-812. doi: 10.1007/s11739-020-02383-3. Epub 2020 May 26.

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32458206 [ View in PubMed

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Abstract

Of huge importance now is to provide a fast, cost-effective, safe, and immediately available pharmaceutical solution to curb the rapid global spread of SARS-CoV-2. Recent publications on SARS-CoV-2 have brought attention to the possible benefit of chloroquine in the treatment of patients infected by SARS-CoV-2. Whether chloroquine can treat SARS-CoV-2 alone and also work as a prophylactic is doubtful. An effective prophylactic medication to prevent viral entry has to contain, at least, either a protease inhibitor or a competitive virus ACE2-binding inhibitor. Using bromhexine at a dosage that selectively inhibits TMPRSS2 and, in so doing, inhibits TMPRSS2-specific viral entry is likely to be effective against SARS-CoV-2. We propose the use of bromhexine as a prophylactic and treatment. We encourage the scientific community to assess bromhexine clinically as a prophylactic and curative treatment. If proven to be effective, this would allow a rapid, accessible, and cost-effective application worldwide.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Drug Targets

Drug	Target	Kind	Organism	Pharmacological Action	Actions
Bromhexine	Transmembrane protease serine 2	Protein	Humans	Unknown	Not Available	Details