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Review
. 2021 Jun:154:106539.
doi: 10.1016/j.prostaglandins.2021.106539. Epub 2021 Feb 14.

Role of arachidonic cascade in COVID-19 infection: A review

Md Abdur Rahman Ripon  1 , Dipty Rani Bhowmik  1 , Mohammad Tohidul Amin  1 , Mohammad Salim Hossain  2
Affiliations
Review

Role of arachidonic cascade in COVID-19 infection: A review

Md Abdur Rahman Ripon et al. Prostaglandins Other Lipid Mediat. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

The World Health Organization has described the 2019 Coronavirus disease caused by an influenza-like virus called SARS-CoV-2 as a pandemic. Millions of people worldwide are already infected by this virus, and severe infection causes hyper inflammation, thus disrupting lung function, exacerbating breath difficulties, and death. Various inflammatory mediators bio-synthesized through the arachidonic acid pathway play roles in developing cytokine storms, injuring virus-infected cells. Since pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, including prostaglandins, and leukotrienes, are key brokers for physiological processes such as inflammation, fever, allergy, and pain but, their function in COVID-19 is not well defined. This study addresses eicosanoid's crucial role through the arachidonic pathway in inflammatory cascading and recommends using bioactive lipids, NSAIDs, steroids, cell phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) inhibitors, and specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) to treat COVID-19 disease. The role of soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitors (SEHIs) in promoting the activity of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and 17-hydroxide-docosahexaenoic acid (17-HDHA) is also discussed. Additional research that assesses the eicosanoid profile in COVID-19 patients or preclinical models generates novel insights into coronavirus-host interaction and inflammation regulation.

Keywords: Arachidonic cascade; COVID-19; COX; NSAID.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Arachidonic acid cascade through the cyclooxygenase (COX) pathway stimulated by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Arachidonic acid cascade through the lipoxygenase (LOX) pathway stimulated by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Arachidonic acid cascade through the cytochrome P450 (CYP) and soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) pathway stimulated by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
COVID-19 management strategies through the AA cascade.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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