Drug Discov Today . COVID-19 and Pneumonia: A Role for the uPA/uPAR System

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Drug Discov Today


. 2020 Jun 17;S1359-6446(20)30238-5.
doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2020.06.013. Online ahead of print.
COVID-19 and Pneumonia: A Role for the uPA/uPAR System


Daniele D'Alonzo ¹ , Maria De Fenza ¹ , Vincenzo Pavone ²



Affiliations

• PMID: 32562843
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2020.06.013

Abstract

Here, we highlight recent findings on the urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA)/uPA receptor (uPAR) system that suggest its potential role as a main orchestrator of fatal progression to pulmonary, kidney, and heart failure in patients with coronavirus. Patients with prolonged background inflammation can present with aberrant inflammatory reactions, well recognized as the main factors that can result in death and probably sustained by a dysregulated uPA/uPAR system. SuPAR, the soluble form of uPAR, represents a biomarker of disease progression, and its levels correlate well with comorbidities associated with the death of patients with coronavirus. New drugs that regulate the uPA/uPAR system could help treat the severe complications of highly pathogenic human coronaviruses (hCoVs), including pandemic coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

Keywords: UPARANT.; acute respiratory distress syndrome; biomarker; formyl peptide receptors; human coronaviruses; urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor.