ISSN: 2639-2038
Authors: Turabian JL*
Background: Cloperastine, a widely used antihistamine drug in the treatment of cough, has been postulated as a potential treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as this drug modulates Sigma-1 receptor, a potential drug target. Objective: Efficacy of cloperastine (used as antitussive) evaluated according to the duration of COVID-19 symptoms in general medicine. Methodology: A case-control study (cases: duration of symptoms <= 13 days; the mean duration of all patients. And controls: duration of symptoms > 13 days) was conducted in patients with COVID-19 confirmed with PCR, who consulted in general medicine office at a health center in Toledo, Spain, from March 1 to August 31, 2020, and the previous history was sought of exposure to the prescription factor of cloperastine. Results: 74 patients were included, 43 cases (COVID-19 with improvement or cure <= 13 days) and 31 controls (COVID-19 with improvement or cure > 13 days or death). No statistically significant difference was found in exposure to cloperastine between cases and controls: Among the cases there were 18 patients exposed to cloperastine (42%); among the controls there were 12 patients exposed to cloperastine (39%) (X2 = 0.0742; p = .785336. NS). Conclusion: In the context of general medicine in Toledo (Spain), during the exponential growth phase of COVID-19 outbreak (March-May 2020) and the subsequent outbreaks (July and August 2020), the previous exposure to cloperastine was not significantly associated with improvement or early cure in COVID-19 patients. Due to the design of the study, this finding should be considered as preliminary or exploratory and be confirmed or refuted by clinical trials. However, the result is in line with what is observed naturally in Spain, where it is frequently used cloperastine, but with high mortality data. It is suggested that the efficacy of cloperastine against COVID-19, if it exists, will be modest, and possibly of little clinical-epidemiological value.
Keywords: Coronavirus; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Cloperastine; Disease & Medicine; Symptoms; General Practice; Epidemiology
