Medicine All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2021 Mar;25(6):2802-2807. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202103_25442.
Since November 2019, SARS Coronavirus 2 disease (COVID-19) pandemic has spread through more than 195 nations worldwide. Though the coronavirus infection affects all age and sex groups, the mortality is skewed towards the elderly population and the cause of death is mostly acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). There are data suggesting the role of excessive immune activation and cytokine storm as the cause of lung injury in COVID-19. The excessive immune activation and cytokine storm usually occurs due to an imbalance in redox homeostasis of the individuals. Considering the antioxidant and free radical scavenging action of N acetyl cysteine (NAC), its use might be useful in COVID-19 patients by decreasing the cytokine storm consequently decreasing the disease severity. Therefore, we reviewed all the available resources pertaining to the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cytokine storm and the mechanism of action of NAC in preventing ROS. We also reviewed the use of NAC in COVID-19.
自 2019 年 11 月以来，严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 型（SARS-CoV-2）疾病（COVID-19）大流行已在全球 195 个以上国家蔓延。尽管冠状病毒感染影响所有年龄和性别群体，但死亡率偏向于老年人群，死因主要为急性呼吸窘迫综合征（ARDS）。有数据表明，过度的免疫激活和细胞因子风暴是 COVID-19 导致肺损伤的原因。这种过度的免疫激活和细胞因子风暴通常是由于个体的氧化还原平衡失衡引起的。鉴于 N-乙酰半胱氨酸（NAC）具有抗氧化和自由基清除作用，其在 COVID-19 患者中的应用可能通过减少细胞因子风暴，从而降低疾病严重程度，因此是有益的。因此，我们查阅了所有关于活性氧（ROS）在细胞因子风暴中的作用以及 NAC 预防 ROS 的作用机制的相关资源，并综述了 NAC 在 COVID-19 中的应用。
