COVID-19: A New Virus, but a Familiar Receptor and Cytokine Release Syndrome

Toshio Hirano; Masaaki Murakami

doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2020.04.003

COVID-19: A New Virus, but a Familiar Receptor and Cytokine Release Syndrome

Immunity. 2020 May 19;52(5):731-733. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2020.04.003. Epub 2020 Apr 22.

Authors

Toshio Hirano¹, Masaaki Murakami²

Affiliations

¹ Headquarters, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Chiba, 263-8555, Japan; Division of Molecular Psychoimmunology, Institute for Genetic Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0815, Japan. Electronic address: hirano.toshio@qst.go.jp.
² Division of Molecular Psychoimmunology, Institute for Genetic Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0815, Japan.

Abstract

Zhou et al. (Nature) and Hoffmann et al. (Cell) identify ACE2 as a SARS-CoV-2 receptor, and the latter show its entry mechanism depends on cellular serine protease TMPRSS2. These results may explain proinflammatory cytokine release via the associated angiotestin II pathway and a possible therapeutic target via the IL-6-STAT3 axis.

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MeSH terms

Animals
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
Chiroptera*
Coronavirus Infections
Coronavirus*
Cytokine Release Syndrome
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral
SARS-CoV-2
Virus Internalization