Crosstalk between COVID-19 and prostate cancer

Abstract

A new coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2, emerged in Wuhan city, China, in December 2019 causing atypical pneumonia and affecting multiple body organs. The rapidly increasing numbers of infected patients and deaths due to COVID-19 disease necessitated declaring it as a global pandemic. Efforts were combined since then to rapidly develop a treatment and/or a vaccine to combat the deadly virus. Drug repurposing approach has been pursued as a temporary management tactic to treat COVID-19 patients. However, reports about the efficacy of many of the used drugs had been controversial with a dire need to keep the ongoing efforts for rapid development of new treatments. Promising data came out pointing to a possible hidden liaison between prostate cancer (PCa) and COVID-19, where androgen-deprivation therapies (ADT) used in PCa had been shown to instigate a protective role against COVID-19. Delving into the possible mechanisms underlying the crosstalk between COVID-19 and PCa alludes a potential association between SARS-CoV-2 targets on host epithelial cells and PCa genetic aberrations and molecular signatures, including AR and TMPRSS2. The question remains: Can PCa treatments serve as potential therapeutic options for COVID-19 patients?

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the crosstalk between COVID-19 and prostate cancer.

Potential association is present between SARS-CoV-2 targets on host epithelial cells on one hand, and prostate cancer genetic aberrations and molecular signatures, such as AR and TMPRSS2, on the other hand. Antiandrogen drugs and TMPRSS2 inhibitors used in prostate cancer might hence serve as common therapeutic options for COVID-19 patients.