Role of pyroptosis in severe COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease endangering the respirator)' traet and multiple organs of the whole body caused by severe aeute respirator)' syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2).More than 200 million people in the world have been infected with the disease, which is an unprecedented global plague.Most patients with C0VID-19 only show mild symptoms with a good prognosis, but about 20% of them may develop into severe cases and eause serious compli-cations, including acute respirator)' distress syndrome ( ARDS) , systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) , cytokine release syndrome (CRS) , etc.Pyroptosis is a kind of programmed cell death characterized by significant inflammatory response.It is often mediated by inflammatory caspase and the gasdermin family of membrane perforating proteins is the final effector molecules, resulting in cell membrane swelling and rupture to death, accompanied by the release of a large number of pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-lp and IL-18, etc).Pyropto- sis affects the occurrence, progression and treatment of many diseases due to its inflammatory and morphological characteristics, and also plays an important role in severe COVID-19.Therefore, drugs that target key molecules in the pyroapoptotic pathway could he a promising breakthrough for treating severe COVID-19.This article reviews the role of pyroptosis in severe COVID-19 complications ARDS and CHS. Copyright © 2022 Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.