The enzymes in COVID-19: A review

Abstract

COVID-19 brought a scientific revolution since its emergence in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Initially, the SARS-CoV-2 virus came to attention through its effects on the respiratory system. However, its actions in many other organs also have been discovered almost daily. As enzymes are indispensable to uncountable biochemical reactions in the human body, it is not surprising that some enzymes are of relevance to COVID-19 pathophysiology. Past evidence from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV outbreaks provided hints about the role of enzymes in SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this setting, ACE-2 is an enzyme of great importance since it is the cell entry receptor for SARS-CoV-2. Clinical data elucidate patterns of enzymatic alterations in COVID-19, which could be associated with organ damage, prognosis, and clinical complications. Further, viral mutations can create new disease behaviors, and these effects are related to the activity of enzymes. This review will discuss the main enzymes related to COVID-19, summarizing the findings on their role in viral entry mechanism, the consequences of their dysregulation, and the effects of SARS-CoV-2 mutations on them.

COVID-DSNet: A novel deep convolutional neural network for detection of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) cases from CT and Chest X-Ray images

“…The SARS-CoV-2 virus can cause serious health problems in people with chronic health problems, the elderly, and in patients with weakened immune systems. The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes serious pathologies in many organs and tissues such as the heart, brain, kidney, and especially lung [32] . In a study conducted at the University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) was observed in 60 of 100 patients who recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection [41] .…”

“…SARS-CoV-2 infection primarily affects the respiratory system and the cardiovascular, neuronal, renal, and gastrointestinal [31] . However, it causes serious pathologies in many tissues and organs (heart, brain, kidney, liver, intestine, pancreas), especially in the lung [32] . The disease can cause serious complications in people with medical health problems such as infection, diabetes, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases (such as coronary artery diseases, peripheral vascular diseases, heart valve diseases), chronic respiratory diseases, cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, etc.)…”

Human Cell Organelles in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Up-to-Date Overview

“…Acknowledging COVID-19 as an inflammatory disease with diabetes as a risk factor for a severe course of the infection, it is of interest to study the relationship between clinical outcomes and use of DPP4 inhibitors [ 164 ]. Some hypotheses assumed interaction between SARS-CoV-2 S protein and DPP4, which could indicate DPP4’s part in virus cell entry together with ACE2 and lead to the application of its inhibitors for antiviral effects [ 165 ]. It was also implied that gliptins may play a role in SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibition [ 166 ].…”

Enzymatic approaches against SARS-CoV-2 infection with an emphasis on the telomere-associated enzymes

“…Similar to ACE-2 and TMPRSS2, DPP4 has been introduced as a viral entry mediator for coronavirus. Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 is mainly present on the cell membrane surface, and acts as the functional entry receptor for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome—Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), reportedly (Li et al 2020 ; Alves et al 2022 ). According to Mongelli et al ( 2021 ), the expression of DPP4 was detected unchanged in post-COVID-19 patients compared to COVID-19-free.…”

“…In this setting, DPP4 inhibitors and interleukin 6 (as a pro-inflammatory cytokine and an anti-inflammatory myokine) antagonists can be considered to reduce the effect of COVID-19 infection in patients with diabetes (Gao et al 2022 ). Randomized and prospective clinical trials are required to assess this properly (Alves et al 2022 ).…”