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Review
. 2021 Mar 6;9(7):1513-1523.
doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i7.1513.

Regulation of the expression of proinflammatory cytokines induced by SARS-CoV-2

Xiang-Ning Zhang  1 , Long-Ji Wu  2 , Xia Kong  2 , Bi-Ying Zheng  3 , Zhe Zhang  4 , Zhi-Wei He  2
Affiliations
Review

Regulation of the expression of proinflammatory cytokines induced by SARS-CoV-2

Xiang-Ning Zhang et al. World J Clin Cases. .

Abstract

An outbreak of a novel coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. It has spread rapidly through China and many other countries, causing a global pandemic. Since February 2020, over 28 countries/regions have reported confirmed cases. Individuals with the infection known as coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) have similar clinical features as severe acute respiratory syndrome first encountered 17 years ago, with fever, cough, and upper airway congestion, along with high production of proinflammatory cytokines (PICs), which form a cytokine storm. PICs induced by COVID-19 include interleukin (IL)-6, IL-17, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1. The production of cytokines is regulated by activated nuclear factor-kB and involves downstream pathways such as Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators transcription. Protein expression is also regulated by post-translational modification of chromosomal markers. Lysine residues in the peptide tails stretching out from the core of histones bind the sequence upstream of the coding portion of genomic DNA. Covalent modification, particularly methylation, activates or represses gene transcription. PICs have been reported to be induced by histone modification and stimulate exudation of hyaluronic acid, which is implicated in the occurrence of COVID-19. These findings indicate the impact of the expression of PICs on the pathogenesis and therapeutic targeting of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Histone; Post-translational modification; Proinflammatory cytokines; SARS-CoV-2; Transcription factor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: I hereby declare that the corresponding author of the submitted manuscript is supported by a research grant from the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province of China during the preparation of the paper; the funding agency has no influence on the preparation on the present manuscript; but the conceived idea of the paper was inspired by the supported research.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The scheme of modification of peptide tails of histones H3 and H4. “M” and “A” denote modification by methylation and acetylation, respectively; the letter “K” on the H3 tail presents activities of activation (blue; K4 and K36), and repression (red; K9 and K27). “C” and “N” represent carboxyl terminus and amino terminus, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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