Efficacy of Addition of Naproxen in the Treatment of Critically Ill Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 Infection

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. (1,2) The exacerbated inflammatory response in COVID-19 infected critically ill patients calls for appropriate anti inflammatory therapeutics combined with antiviral effects. Thus, drugs combining anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects may reduce the symptoms of respiratory distress caused by COVID-19. This dual effect may simultaneously protect severely ill patients and reduce the viral load, therefore limiting virus dissemination. Naproxen, an approved anti-inflammatory drug, is an inhibitor of both cyclo oxygenase (COX-2) and of Influenza A virus nucleoprotein (NP). The NP of Coronavirus (CoV), positive-sense single-stranded viruses, share with negative-sense single-stranded viruses as Influenza the ability to bind to- and protect genomic RNA by forming self-associated oligomers in a helical structure with RNA. Naproxen was shown to bind the Influenza A virus NP making electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions with conserved residues of the RNA binding groove and C terminal domain. (3) Consequently, naproxen binding competed with NP association with viral RNA and impeded the NP self-association process which strongly reduced viral transcription/replication. This drug may have the potential to present antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2 suggested by modelling work based on the structures of CoV NP. The high sequence conservation within the coronavirus family, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) and the present SARSCoV-2 coronavirus allows to perform this comparison. (4) A recent clinical trial shown that the combination of clarithromycin, naproxen and oseltamivir reduced mortality of patients hospitalized for H3N2 Influenza infection. (5). Inappropriate inflammatory response in CODIV-19 patients was demonstrated in a recent study where Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients had higher plasma levels of IL2, IL7, IL10, GSCF, IP10, MCP1, MIP1A, and TNF? compared with non-ICU patients.(2) We suggest that naproxen could combine a broad-spectrum antiviral activity with its well-known anti inflammatory action that could help reducing severe respiratory mortality associated with COVID-19.