The Potential Role of Osteopontin and Furin in Worsening Disease Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients with Pre-Existing Diabetes.

摘要: The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the ongoing disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with more than 50 million cases reported globally. Findings have consistently identified an increased severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in individuals diabetes. Osteopontin, a cytokine-like matrix-associated phosphoglycoprotein, is elevated diabetes and drives expression furin, proprotein convertase implicated proteolytic processing activation several precursors, including chemokines, growth factors, hormones, adhesion molecules, receptors. Elevated serum furin signature mellitus progression associated dysmetabolic phenotype risk diabetes-linked premature mortality. Additionally, plays important role enhancing infectivity by promoting its entry replication host cell. Here, we hypothesize that diabetes-induced osteopontin protein upregulation results worse outcomes diabetic patients owing to roles these viral increasing metabolic dysfunction. Thus, targeting osteopontin-furin axis may be plausible strategy for reducing mortality