Table 2.

Elucidating various drugs used to treat SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, along with their mechanism of action and adverse effects.

S. no.	Drug	Effective against	Mechanism of action	Adverse effects	References
1.	Ribavirin	SARS-CoV	Anti-viral nucleoside analog – inhibits the viral genomic replication	Anemia, hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia, developed the risk of teratogenicity and bradycardia	[118].
2.	Lopinavir	SARS-CoV	Protease inhibitors	Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache	[122]
3.	Ritonavir	SARS-CoV	Protease inhibitors	Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache	[122]
4.	Methylprednisolone	SARS-CoV	Anti-inflammatory effect	The onset of diabetes, avascular necrosis, osteoporosis.	[132,133]
5.	Corticosteroids	SARS-CoV	Inhibits pro-inflammatory effects	Aspergillosis and fungal superinfection	[49,134]
6.	Methylprednisolone (0.5–1 mg/kg) followed by hydrocortisone (100 mg/8 h) and pulse doses of methylprednisolone (0.5 g for 3 d)	Lung diseases	–	–	[124]
7.	Convalescent plasma	SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2	Adaptive or passive immune response	–	[135,139]
8.	Lopinavir/ritonavir	MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2	Not effective against MERS, anti-viral therapy for pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2	Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache	[140]
9.	Pegylated interferon-α	Hepatitis-C, MERS-CoV	Inhibits DNA synthesis	Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache	[140]
10.	Lopinavir/ritonavir and IFN-β	MERS-CoV	Improves pulmonary, reduce viral load, and necrosis in lungs and extrapulmonary tissues	Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache	[143,144]
11.	Hydroxychloroquine	SARS-CoV-2, Malaria	Blocks maturation of endosome, maturation and its function by inhibiting the release of virions in the infected cell	Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness	[112]