Lithium and coronaviral infections. A scoping review

Jan K Nowak; Jarosław Walkowiak

doi:10.12688/f1000research.22299.2

Lithium and coronaviral infections. A scoping review

F1000Res. 2020 Feb 7:9:93. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.22299.2. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jan K Nowak¹, Jarosław Walkowiak¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Metabolic Diseases, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland.

Abstract

The current rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) calls for a rapid response from the research community. Lithium is widely used to treat bipolar disorder, but has been shown to exhibit antiviral activity. This brief review took a systematic approach to identify six in vitro studies reporting on the influence of lithium on coronaviral infections. We propose mechanistic investigation of the influence of lithium - alone and with chloroquine - on the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Keywords: 2019-nCoV; Coronaviridae; GSK-3β; Wuhan; antiviral; apoptosis; coronavirus; glycogen synthase kinase 3-beta; lithium; lithium carbonate; lithium orotate.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Cells, Cultured
Chloroquine / therapeutic use
Coronavirus Infections / drug therapy*
Humans
Lithium / therapeutic use*
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral / drug therapy*
SARS-CoV-2

Substances

Chloroquine
Lithium

Grants and funding

The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work.