ArticleEClinicalMedicine2021
Effect of Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate and Emtricitabine on nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 viral load burden amongst outpatients with COVID-19: A pilot, randomized, open-label phase 2 trial.
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04685512 (Effect of Tenofovir/Emtricitabine Short Course on Viral Clearance in Patients Recently Infected With SARS-COV2), which is not on this map. Cited by 43 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Tenofovir/Emtricitabine Short Course on Viral Clearance in Patients Recently Infected With SARS-COV2 (Covid-19) Not Requiring Hospitalization: a Phase IIB/III Multicenter Open-label Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of tenofovir on clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients: a systematic review.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Drug treatments for mild or moderate covid-19: systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Pooled it
- The relationship between viral clearance rates and disease progression in early symptomatic COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2024Pooled it
- Outpatient randomized controlled trials to reduce COVID-19 hospitalization: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of medical virology · 2023Pooled it
- Antiviral drug treatment for nonsevere COVID-19: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2022Pooled it
- Daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine and hydroxychloroquine for pre-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19: a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial in healthcare workers.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2023Trial
- Review on drug repositioning of some FDA-approved drugs for treatment of cancer/microbial diseases.RSC advances · 2026Review
- Reply to: "Promising Drugs Require Proper Testing": Let's Not Confuse Pharmacodynamics With Clinical Efficacy.Clinical and translational science · 2026Article
- Promising Drugs Require Proper Testing.Clinical and translational science · 2026Article
- How Can Pharmacology Help Us Overcome the Challenges of Drug Repositioning as Antivirals to Treat Emerging Pathogens? The Example of Covid-19.Clinical and translational science · 2026Review
- PrEPped for COVID? The association between HIV-PrEP use and COVID-19 among men and gender diverse people who have sex with men: findings from three large online surveys in the United Kingdom.BMC public health · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 drug resistance and therapeutic approaches.Heliyon · 2025Review
- Plausible mechanism of drug resistance and side-effects of COVID-19 therapeutics: a bottleneck for its eradication.Daru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2024Review
- COVID-19 therapeutics.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Clinical Outcomes of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in People Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in South Korea: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2024Article
- An Overview of SARS-CoV-2 Potential Targets, Inhibitors, and Computational Insights to Enrich the Promising Treatment Strategies.Current microbiology · 2024Review
- Molecular modeling of some commercially available antiviral drugs and their derivatives against SARS-CoV-2 infection.Narra J · 2024Article
- Clearance of persistent SARS-CoV-2 associates with increased neutralizing antibodies in advanced HIV disease post-ART initiation.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of Drug Repurposing and Natural Products Against SARS-CoV-2: A Comprehensive Review.Clinical pharmacology : advances and applications · 2024Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTenofovir and emtricitabine interfere with the SARS CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA)-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Several cohorts reported that people treated by tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine are less likely to develop SARS CoV-2 infection and related severe COVID-19.
methodsWe conducted a pilot randomized, open-label, controlled, phase 2 trial at two hospitals in France. Eligible patients were consecutive outpatients (aged ≥18 years) with RT-PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and an interval from symptom onset to enrolment of 7 days or less. Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine (2 pills on day 1 followed by 1 pill per day on days 2-7) or the standard of care. The primary and secondary endpoints were SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance from baseline assessed by cycle threshold (Ct) RT-PCR on nasopharyngeal swab collected at day 4 and day 7, respectively. A higher Ct corresponds to a lower SARS CoV-2 viral burden. Other endpoints were the time to recovery and the number of adverse events. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04685512.
findingsFrom November, 20
interpretationIn this pilot study of outpatients adult with recent non-severe COVID-19, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate plus emtricitabine appeared to accelerate the natural clearance of nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 viral burden. These findings support the conduct of larger trials of tenofovir-based therapies for the prevention and early treatment of COVID-19.
fundingNo external funding.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.