Potential therapeutic road for targeting the SARS-CoV-2 at throat.

Kaya, M; Abuaisha, A M; Serakinci, N; Ozturk, S

INTRODUCTION Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious public health problem for 183 out of 197 countries in the world. Understanding the routes and pathogenesis of the coronavirus is important and it is considered that the studies on host cell receptor Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) may be valuable for the treatment and prevention of the disease. AIM To evaluate the possibility of inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 at throat. METHODS A comprehensive literature search was conducted. CONCLUSION In view of the fact that the mouth and nose have higher number of ACE2 expressed cells, they serve as a gateway for the virus to enter. Thus, blocking the gate could be a good choice to reduce or even prevent the transmission. Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are double-stranded RNA molecules and could be designed easily and directed against many strains of a virus. Due to their features, siRNAs can provide a potential strategy to interfere with the replication of viral diseases. We think that since oral and nasal epithelial cells are relatively easily accessible it may allow to develop siRNA molecules to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 already at the entry where it continues to replicate for a period (Fig. 1, Ref. 50).