Elsevier

Life Sciences

Volume 267, 15 February 2021, 118923
Life Sciences

Review article
Targeting inflammatory cytokine storm to fight against COVID-19 associated severe complications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2020.118923Get rights and content

Abstract

Such testing and trying time probably never seen before in the human history. The novel coronavirus disease abbreviated as COVID-19 is the ongoing health crisis which entered into human life in late December 2019. The ease of transmission between humans and the undetectability in early stage makes COVID-19 frightening and unprecedented. The disease is characterised by pneumonia progressing to breathing difficulty, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multi-organ failure. Clinical studies suggest excessive release of inflammatory mediators leads to cytokine storm, a phenomenon which appears to be potentially life-threatening in COVID-19. Across the globe, when the world authorities are grappling to contain the virus, our review provides a glimpse on structure, pathophysiology of the virus and further sheds light on various clinical complications associated with the disease in order to open up/raise new horizons to explore various possible theoretical targets for COVID-19. The review also portrays a question and debates: Can targeting cytokine storm can be a feasible approach to combat COVID-19?

Keywords

COVID-19
SARS-COV-2
Acute respiratory distress syndrome
Cytokine storm
Interleukins
TNF-α
KV1.3

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