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NITRIC OXIDE PATHWAY AS A POTENTIAL THERAPEUTIC TARGET IN COVID-19

KHALID M. ALKHARFY, MUNEEB U REHMAN, AJAZ AHMAD *

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The Covid-19 viral infection is linked to a severe pulmonary reaction, leading to an acute lung injury in a large percentage of affected patients. Various inflammatory pathways regulated by SARS-CoV-2 are under-investigated. Some potential therapeutic options aimed to alleviate the inflammatory response of SARS-CoV-2 infection are involving different strategies for blocking the activation of its binding receptors on host cells and immunomodulation. Given that excessive lung inflammation is likely to cause death in Covid-19 patients, using nitric oxide (NO) pathway to mitigate this risk appears to be a reasonable approach to avoid serious lung injury. Such therapy could be paired with systemic immunomodulatory therapy to combat the multiple organ damage of Covid-19. Therefore, regulating the NO pathway has a potential therapeutic strategy to minimize the mortality of SARS-CoV-2 infection.