SARS-CoV-2 infection and lytic reactivation of herpesviruses: A potential threat in the postpandemic era?

The outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the causative pathogen for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has greatly stressed our healthcare system. In addition to severe respiratory and systematic symptoms, several comorbidities increase the risk of fatal disease outcomes, including chronic viral infections. Increasing cases of lytic reactivation of human herpesviruses in COVID-19 patients and vaccinated people have been reported recently. SARS-CoV2 coinfection, COVID-19 treatments, and vaccination may aggravate those herpesvirus-associated diseases by reactivating the viruses in latently infected host cells. In this review, we summarize recent clinical findings and limited mechanistic studies regarding the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and different human herpesviruses that suggest an ongoing potential threat to human health in the postpandemic era.

The Anti-COVID-19 Drug Remdesivir Promotes Oncogenic Herpesvirus Reactivation through Regulation of Intracellular Signaling Pathways.

Recently, remdesivir and molnupiravir were approved for treating COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, little is known about the impact of these drugs on other viruses preexisted in COVID-19 patients. Here we report that remdesivir but not molnupiravir induced lytic reactivation of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), two major oncogenic herpesviruses. Remdesivir induced mature virion production from latently infected cells. Mechanistic studies showed that remdesivir induced KSHV and EBV reactivation by regulating several intracellular signaling pathways.

SARS-CoV-2 proteins and anti-COVID-19 drugs induce lytic reactivation of an oncogenic virus.

An outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19), a respiratory disease, has infected almost one hundred million people since the end of 2019, killed over two million, and caused worldwide social and economic disruption. Because the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection of host cells and its pathogenesis remain largely unclear, there are currently no antiviral drugs with proven efficacy. Besides severe respiratory and systematic symptoms, several comorbidities increase risk of fatal disease outcome. Therefore, it is required to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on pre-existing diseases of patients, such as cancer and other infectious diseases. In the current study, we report that SARS-CoV-2 encoded proteins and some currently used anti-COVID-19 drugs are able to induce lytic reactivation of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), one of major human oncogenic viruses, through manipulation of intracellular signaling pathways. Our data indicate that those KSHV + patients especially in endemic areas exposure to COVID-19 or undergoing the treatment may have increased risks to develop virus-associated cancers, even after they have fully recovered from COVID-19.

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on China's green bond market.

The paper applies the event study method and econometric models to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on China's green bond market for the first time. We find that (1) the COVID-19 pandemic has significant impacts on China's green bond market and increases the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of the green bonds greatly. After the pandemic is relieved, the CAR drops significantly; (2) the improving of bond issuers' governance capacity, the weakening of information asymmetry and the reinforcing of debt-paying ability can effectively mitigate the negative impacts and positively promote the recovery of bond issuers after the pandemic; (3) the impacts of bond issuers' governance capacity, information asymmetry and debt-paying ability on the CAR of green bonds are significantly heterogeneous before and after the pandemic due to their property rights and whether they are listed or not.