Abstract
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) exhibits the most important global public health emergency. Montelukast (MTL), a prototype cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist, is commonly considered in the therapy of exercise- and aspirin-induced asthma. The purpose of this study was to present a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of MTL against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) and exuberant immune activation in COVID‐19 disease.
Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched from the database on August 15, 2021and updated on November 19, 2022. Two reviewers independently screened articles, appraised methodological quality, and extracted the data.
Results: A total of 118 related reports were recognized after eliminating duplicates. Of these, 30 references were screened based on titles and abstracts. After removing unrelated studies, 20 studies were included in the full-text review and evaluated for appropriateness. Finally, eight studies fitting the inclusion criteria for data extraction were selected. One of them was a prospective, randomized, controlled, and single-blinded study, three were open-label randomized or non-randomized controlled clinical trials, two were retrospective studies, and two were case series or comparative studies. A total of 1083 patients infected with COVID-19 infection (999 adults and 84 children) were examined on the effectiveness of MTL on symptom severity as well as hospitalization length. The results of the mentioned studies showed a low risk of clinical deterioration in the MTL group. In addition, the length of hospital stay was low in the treatment group compared to the standard management.
Conclusion: MTL as a potential adjuvant therapy in COVID-19 may improve lung injury, inflammation, and symptoms. Moreover, the use of MTL could decrease the severity and mortality of COVID-19. Additional well-designed randomized controlled trials are necessary to approve the role of MTL in SARS-CoV-2 prevention or COVID-19 symptoms improvement.