The therapeutic potential of ivermectin for COVID-19: a systematic review of mechanisms and evidence

{ 'institution': [{'name': 'medRxiv'}], 'indexed': {'date-parts': [[2023, 8, 10]], 'date-time': '2023-08-10T17:35:09Z', 'timestamp': 1691688909490}, 'posted': {'date-parts': [[2020, 12, 4]]}, 'group-title': 'Public and Global Health', 'reference-count': 62, 'publisher': 'Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory', 'content-domain': {'domain': [], 'crossmark-restriction': False}, 'accepted': {'date-parts': [[2020, 12, 4]]}, 'abstract': '<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction</jats:title><jats:p>Ivermectin ' 'is a commonly used antihelminthic agent with over 35 years of established safety data in ' 'humans. Recent data demonstrates antiviral activity in vitro against SARS-CoV-2, in addition ' 'to a range of viruses. In vitro and animal models also provide evidence of immunomodulatory ' 'action. These additional modes of action are supported by in silico modelling, which propose ' 'a number of viral and host targets that would mediate these ' 'effects.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objectives</jats:title><jats:p>The aim of ' 'this study is to systematically review the published and preprint clinical literature and ' 'study results that assessed the potential role of ivermectin as a COVID-19 therapeutic and ' 'prophylactic agent.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>We ' 'conducted a comprehensive review of PubMed, medRxiv, ClinicalTrials.gov, Global Coronavirus ' 'COVID-19 Clinical Trial Tracker, World Health Organization International Clinical Trials ' 'Registry Platform, EU Clinical Trials Register, ANZ clinical trials registry, and references ' 'from relevant ' 'articles.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Search ' 'keywords- “COVID-19 (and synonyms) AND ivermectin”- generated 86 articles on PubMed, 48 on ' 'medRvix and 37 on clinicaltrials.gov at the time of writing. Twelve of these were listed as ' 'completed clinical trials and of these, 8 were included as investigators had released ' 'results. Positive mortality benefit, reduced time to clinical recovery, reduced incidence of ' 'disease progression and decreased duration of hospital admission were reported in patients ' 'across all stages of clinical ' 'severity.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Limitations</jats:title><jats:p>Due to the ' 'time-critical nature of the COVID-19 pandemic our review included preprint data, which must ' 'be interpreted with caution while it awaits peer review.</jats:p></jats:sec>', 'DOI': '10.1101/2020.11.30.20236570', 'type': 'posted-content', 'created': {'date-parts': [[2020, 12, 5]], 'date-time': '2020-12-05T02:25:59Z', 'timestamp': 1607135159000}, 'source': 'Crossref', 'is-referenced-by-count': 6, 'title': 'THE THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL OF IVERMECTIN FOR COVID-19: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF MECHANISMS AND ' 'EVIDENCE', 'prefix': '10.1101', 'author': [ {'given': 'Stefanie', 'family': 'Kalfas', 'sequence': 'first', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1176-5442', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Kumar', 'family': 'Visvanathan', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-3137', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Kim', 'family': 'Chan', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0335-1562', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'John', 'family': 'Drago', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}], 'member': '246', 'reference': [ { 'key': '2020120616300677000_2020.11.30.20236570v1.1', 'unstructured': 'World Health Organization Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID–19) Weekly ' 'epidemiological update 24 August, 2020. 2020. 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