COVID-19 and hyperinflammation: Could the methionine sulfoxide reductase enzymes play a role?

COVID-19 is a serious public health risk induced by novel SARS-like coronavirus, with currently almost 700 million infections and 5 million deaths. The disease can also exhibit serious illnesses, especially for patients with other chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, or cancer. A significant number of serious patients develops symptoms ranging from systemic shock to multi-organ failure, often with fatal outcome. The predominant cause of mortality is the impetuous inflammatory response mediated by a large amount of toxic reactive oxidative species released from phagocytic cells infiltrated into tissues. Methionine sulfoxide reductase (Msr) enzymes are physiologically involved in shielding against oxidative stress and thus malfunction or expression of these enzymes may result in a predisposition for the occurrence of inflammatory diseases. Accordingly, the role of this important Msr system in protecting against COVID-19 should be investigated.