A Comprehensive Survey on the Expediated Anti-COVID-19 Options Enabled by Metal Complexes—Tasks and Trials

Abstract

Contemporary pharmacology dating back to the late 19th/early 20th centuries has benefitted largely from the incorporation of metal complexes. Various biological attributes have been successfully realized using metal/metal complex-based drugs. Among anticancer, antimicrobial, and antiviral applications, anticancer applications have extracted the maximum benefit from the metal complex, Cisplatin. The following review has compiled the various antiviral benefits harnessed through inputs from metal complexes. As a result of exploiting the pharmacological aspects of metal complexes, the anti-COVID-19 deliverables have been summarized. The challenges ahead, the gaps in this research area, the need to improvise incorporating nanoaspects in metal complexes, and the need to test metal complex-based drugs in clinical trials have been discussed and deliberated. The pandemic shook the entire world and claimed quite a percentage of the global population. Metal complex-based drugs are already established for their antiviral property with respect to enveloped viruses and extrapolating them for COVID-19 can be an effective way to manipulate drug resistance and mutant issues that the current antiCOVID-19 drugs are facing.

Nanoparticle‑based antiviral strategies to combat the influenza virus (Review)

“…To date, only a small number of clinical trials have been conducted using metal NPs ( 90 ). Most of the data available have been acquired via in silico , in vitro and in vivo assays ( 91 ). This is largely due to the fact that metal NPs exhibit immunogenicity and inflammation after systemic administration, which causes damage to the cardiovascular system via oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, thrombosis and arrhythmia ( 92 ).…”

Complexes of Ruthenium(II) as Promising Dual-Active Agents against Cancer and Viral Infections

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic [14], numerous studies have addressed using metal complexes in the hope of finding new strategies to cure the disease [15][16][17]. A comprehensive survey of the anti-COVID-19 options available using metal complexes has been recently reported by Gopal et al (2023) [18]. Among the precious metals, ruthenium (Ru) has singular physicochemical properties, which makes it particularly useful in drug design [19].…”