Counter-regulatory 'Renin-Angiotensin' System-based Candidate Drugs to Treat COVID-19 Diseases in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients.

Counter-regulatory 'Renin-Angiotensin' System-based Candidate Drugs to Treat COVID-19 Diseases in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. Infect Disord Drug Targets. 2020 May 17;: Authors: Annweiler C, Cao Z, Wu Y, Faucon E, Mouhat S, Kovacic H, Sabatier JM Abstract SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 and the 'Renin-Angiotensin' System The ubiquitous 'Renin-Angiotensin' system (RAS), also referred to as 'Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone' system, plays a crucial physiological role in humans as being a key regulator of renal, cardiovascular and innate immune functions [1, 2]. It appears to work in tandem with vitamin D, a secosteroid pro-hormone which reportedly acts as a negative regulatory factor of the RAS [3-6]. A dysfunction (e.g. over-reactivity) of RAS, together with hypovitaminosis D, is likely associated with some of the various renal, cardiac, vascular and immune outcomes that might be observed in COVID-19 patients, including the cytokine storm (i.e. unopposed hyperactive immune reaction generating both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines) and consequent lethal acute respiratory distress syndrome [1, 7]. Recently, SARS-CoV-2 [8, 9], the causative agent of COVID-19, has been described to interfere with the RAS [2] by interacting -via its spike (S) glycoprotein- with the metallopeptidase Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor [9, 10] that is expressed at the surface of epithelial cells from blood vessels, lung, kidney (renal tubules...
Source: Infectious Disorders Drug Targets - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: Infect Disord Drug Targets Source Type: research