The efficacy of antivirals, corticosteroids, and monoclonal antibodies as acute COVID-19 treatments in reducing the incidence of long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Whether treatment during acute COVID-19 results in protective efficacy against long COVID incidence remains unclear.

Objectives: To assess the relationship between acute COVID-19 treatments of antivirals, corticosteroids, and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and long COVID incidence, and their effects in different populations and individual symptoms.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data sources: Searches were conducted up to January 29, 2024 in PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and Embase.

Study eligibility criteria: Articles that reported long COVID incidence post-acute COVID with a follow-up of at least 30 days with no language restrictions.

Participants: Patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis history.

Interventions: Patients treated with antivirals, corticosteroids or mAbs.

Assessment of risk of bias: Quality assessment was based on the Newcastle-Ottawa scale, risk of bias in nonrandomized studies of interventions-I and Cochrane risk of bias tool.

Methods of data synthesis: Basic characteristics were documented for each study. Random forest model and meta-regression were used to evaluate the correlation between treatments and long COVID.

Results: Our search identified 2363 records, 32 of which were included in the qualitative synthesis and 25 included into the meta-analysis. Effect size from 14 papers investigating acute COVID-19 antiviral treatment concluded its protective efficacy against long COVID (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.48-0.79; p 0.0002); however, corticosteroid (OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 0.80-3.09; p 0.1913), and mAbs treatments (OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.56-1.56; p 0.8012) did not generate such effect. Subsequent subgroup analysis revealed that antivirals provided stronger protection in the aged, male, unvaccinated and nondiabetic populations. Furthermore, antivirals effectively reduced 8 out of the 22 analysed long COVID symptoms.

Conclusions: Our meta-analysis determined that antivirals reduced long COVID incidence across populations and should thus be recommended for acute COVID-19 treatment. There was no relationship between mAbs treatment and long COVID, but studies should be conducted to clarify acute COVID-19 corticosteroids' potential harmful effects on the post-acute phase of COVID-19.

Keywords: Acute COVID-19 treatments; Antivirals; Corticosteroids; Long COVID; Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs).