DRUG REPURPOSING OF DERMATOLOGIC MEDICATIONS TO TREAT COVID-19: SCIENCE OR FICTION?

Abstract No pharmaceutical products have been shown to be safe and effective to specifically treat the newly emerging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) so the therapy administered to infected patients remains symptomatic and empirical. Alongside the development of new, often high-budget drugs, a different tactic is applied in parallel, investigating old, inexpensive medications, originally designed for a variety of diseases, to study their potential in treating COVID-19. The skin is the largest organ of the human body. With more than three thousand skin conditions identified, the specialty of dermatology offers a rich armamentarium of systemic therapeutic agents, aimed to treat the various chronic immunologically mediated, metabolic, infectious, occupational, inherited, or paraneoplastic. dermatoses. Dermatologists have extensive experience with a number of drugs that have either shown promising in vitro antiviral action (directly targeting the viral replication) or are used as nonspecific immunosuppressive strategies, such as glucocorticoids, synthetic antimalarials, colchicine, or other immunomodulators, and a number of targeted therapeutics directed at controlling hyperinflammatory processes, similar to the “cytokine storm” associated with COVID-19 infection. We discuss several dermatologic drugs that have already been used or may have a promising role in the treatment of COVID-19.