The Role of Autophagy in Respiratory Complications of COVID-19

The rapid spreading of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide results in pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in many patients, which can be the major cause of death in cases with COVID-19. It has been reported that chloroquine (CQ) has improved COVID-19-induced pneumonia in clinical trials.

Since CQ and its derivatives are proved to exhibit anti-autophagy properties based on previous studies, autophagy can be introduced as a possible mechanism of respiratory complications.

In the current study, we reviewed papers of Google Scholar database with no time limitation.

It was revealed that autophagy has an important role in the manifestation of COVID-19 respiratory complications

Autophagy is triggered by SARS-CoV2 virus for its replication and autophagy inhibitory treatments might be considered promising therapeutics.