Elevated Plasmin(ogen) as a Common Risk Factor for COVID-19 Susceptibility.

Hong-Long Ji1, Runzhen Zhao1, Sadis Matalon1

  • 1Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Health Science Centre at Tyler, Tyler, Texas; Texas Lung Injury Institute, University of Texas Health Science Centre at Tyler, Tyler, Texas; Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Division of Molecular and Translational Biomedicine, Pulmonary Injury and Repair Center, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; and Department of Medicine and Anesthesia, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California.

Physiological Reviews
|March 29, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Patients with common conditions like hypertension and diabetes face worse COVID-19 outcomes due to elevated plasmin(ogen). This protein may increase SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and virulence, suggesting it as a therapeutic target.

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