Can a drug used to help premature babies breathe also be of benefit in patients with COVID-19?

What is it about?

Some people infected by the Corona virus that causes COVID-19 develop severe breathing problems and are often transferred to the intensive care unit where they receive mechanical ventilation in order to help their breathing. Unfortunately, this therapy can also damage the lung. This review article focuses on the potential to help these COVID-19 patients with therapy that has been investigated for a number of other lung conditions, exogeneous surfactant administration. The most notably success of this therapy is its ability to improve survival in premature infants with lung dysfunction. There are, as of the writing of this review, 5 ongoing clinical trials testing exogenous surfactant in COVID-19 patients. We review the rationale for using this therapy in these patients and how the experience with other diseases may help the interpretation of the outcomes and the design of future trials.

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Why is it important?

Although vaccines have been developed to ultimately end this health crisis and the associated severe social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the immediate future still requires novel, supportive, approaches to help the most severely affected patients. Exogenous surfactant may represent one such approach. Furthermore, the information obtained from the ongoing clinical trials may ultimately be utilized in designing treatment of new pulmonary infections and other pulmonary diseases.

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