COVID-19 and Phosphodiesterase Enzyme Type 5 Inhibitors

Hayder M Al-Kuraishy; Ali I Al-Gareeb; Marwa S Al-Niemi; Ali K Al-Buhadily; Nasser A Al-Harchan; Claire Lugnier

doi:10.4103/JMAU.JMAU_63_20

COVID-19 and Phosphodiesterase Enzyme Type 5 Inhibitors

J Microsc Ultrastruct. 2020 Dec 10;8(4):141-145. doi: 10.4103/JMAU.JMAU_63_20. eCollection 2020 Oct-Dec.

Authors

Hayder M Al-Kuraishy¹, Ali I Al-Gareeb¹, Marwa S Al-Niemi², Ali K Al-Buhadily¹, Nasser A Al-Harchan³, Claire Lugnier⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medicine and Therapeutic, Medical Faculty, College of Medicine, Al-Mustansiriyia University, Baghdad, Iraq.
² Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medicine and Therapeutic, Medical Faculty, College of Medicine, Al-Farahedi University, Baghdad, Iraq.
³ Department of Clinical Pharmacology, College of Dentistry, Al-Rasheed University, Baghdad, Iraq.
⁴ Department EA 3072 "Mitochondria, Oxidative Stress and Muscular Protection", Institute of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Strasbourg Cedex, France.

Abstract

COVID-19 pathology is mainly associated to a pulmonary disease which sometimes might result in an uncontrollable storm related to inflammatory diseases which could be fatal. It is well known that phosphodiesterase enzyme type 5 inhibitors (PDE5Is), such as sildenafil, have been successfully developed for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension; interestingly, more recently, it was shown that PDE5Is might be also anti-inflammatory. Therefore, it would be of interest to question about the use of PDE5Is to overcome the COVID-19 storm, as much as PDE5 is mainly present in the lung tissues and vessels.

Keywords: Acute lung injury; COVID-19; nucleotide phosphodiesterase enzyme.

Publication types

Review