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Comment
. 2021 Aug 26;58(2):2100920.
doi: 10.1183/13993003.00920-2021. Print 2021 Aug.

Asthma, COPD and SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19): potential mechanistic insights

Peter A B Wark  1   2 , Prabuddha S Pathinayake  1 , Mathew Suji Eapen  3 , Sukhwinder Singh Sohal  4
Affiliations
Comment

Asthma, COPD and SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19): potential mechanistic insights

Peter A B Wark et al. Eur Respir J. .

Abstract

Patients with asthma are somewhat protected from COVID-19 complications compared to COPD. This may be due to variability in viral attachment protein, ICS use, smoking/vaping status, a skewed inflammatory pattern, and dysregulated endocytic machinery. https://bit.ly/3qOcyNb

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: P.A.B. Wark has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: P.S. Pathinayake has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M.S. Eapen has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S.S. Sohal reports personal fees for lectures from Chiesi, outside the submitted work.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Cellular mechanisms of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in asthma and COPD. Smoking and vaping exposure upregulates angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor expression in airway epithelium while inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and oral corticosteroids (OCS) reduce ACE2 expression in asthma compared to COPD. Once SARS-CoV-2 binds to the ACE2 receptor via the spike protein, serine protease TMPRSS2 cleaves the viral spike protein, facilitating viral uptake and internalisation by endocytosis. The endosome- and lysosome-associated proteins EEA1, RAB-7, LAMP-1 and CTL, which facilitate viral replication within the host cell, are abundant in COPD epithelium. Th2 cytokines (IL-13) upregulate ADAM-17 expression in asthma epithelium, resulting in ACE2 shedding prior to infection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

  • The impact of COVID-19 on patients with asthma.
    Izquierdo JL, Almonacid C, González Y, Del Rio-Bermudez C, Ancochea J, Cárdenas R, Lumbreras S, Soriano JB. Izquierdo JL, et al. Eur Respir J. 2021 Mar 4;57(3):2003142. doi: 10.1183/13993003.03142-2020. Print 2021 Mar. Eur Respir J. 2021. PMID: 33154029 Free PMC article.

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