A European pharmacotherapeutic agent Roflumilast exploring integrated
preclinical and clinical evidences for SARS CoV-2 mediated inflammation
to organ damage
Abstract
COVID-19 has spread globally, affecting almost 160 million individuals.
Elderly and pre-existing patients (such as diabetes, heart disease and
asthma), seems more susceptible to serious illness with COVID-19.
Roflumilast was licensed for usage in the European Union in July 2010 as
a phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor. Roflumilast has been shown to
decrease bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis, lung hydroxyproline, right
heart thickning in animal prophylactic. The current study reviewed
existing data that the PDE-4 inhibitor protects not just renal tissues
but also other major organ systems after COVID-19 infection by
decreasing immune cell infiltration. These immune-balancing effects of
roflumilast were related with a decrease in oxidative and inflammatory
burden, caspase-3 suppression, and increased PKA/cAMP levels in renal
and other organ tissue.