COVID-19 therapies: do we see substantial progress?

The appearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its spread all over the world is the cause of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has recently resulted in almost 400 million confirmed cases and 6 million deaths, not to mention unknown long-term or persistent side effects in convalescent individuals. In this short review, we discuss approaches to treat COVID-19 that are based on current knowledge of the mechanisms of viral cell receptor recognition, virus-host membrane fusion, and inhibition of viral RNA and viral assembly. Despite enormous progress in antiviral therapy and prevention, new effective therapies are still in great demand.