Currently, there is no specific
antiviral treatment for
COVID-19. However, drugs previously developed to treat other
viral infections are being tested to verify if they might also be effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
COVID-19. Twenty years ago, the F.D.A. approved
Lopinavir/
ritonavir (LPV/r) to treat
HIV infection. LPV and
ritonavir were initially purposed to inhibit 3-chymotrypsin-like
protease (3CLpro) of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV and preliminary promising data on its efficacy for treating people infected with those viruses were available. Therefore, due to the high genetic similarities among those viruses and SARS-CoV-2, early during
COVID-19 pandemic LPV/r was also proposed as one
emergency treatment. We reviewed data from the literature about LPV/r treatment and
SARS-CoV-2 infection, mainly focused on the efficacy and safety of this drugs for
COVID-19 treatment. We can conclude that although up to date no clear benefit has been observed with the LPV/r treatment beyond standard care, its efficacy against
SARS-COV-2 infection deserves further evaluations, particularly during the very early phase of the disease.