The Bitter the Taste, The Better is the Medicine: Is Caffeine the Answer to COVID-19?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21467/preprints.78Abstract
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. The virus is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales. The firsthand reason for COVID 19 is upper respiratory dysfunction which allows the entry of viruses in the respiratory system and leads to severe problems in the human body. Thus, Bitter taste receptor, TAS2Rs on human airway smooth muscle (ASM) found in the respiratory system can play a big role in providing immunity against COVID-19. Activation of TAS2Rs by bitter agonists activates host defense pathways through calcium signaling. Cytokines storms is the another reason for COVID -19 that can be prevented by TAS2Rs because it can regulate natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity, chemokine signaling pathways, T cell receptor signaling pathways, TNF signaling pathways, and others. Since, we propose to utilize caffeine, the bitter agonists to stimulate the TAS2Rs, activating host defense mechanisms and also suppressing the cytokine storms due to its anti-inflammatory action, altogether leading to an ameliorated effects of COVID-19.
Keywords:
caffeine, COVID-19, Taste Receptor(TAS2Rs)Downloads
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Copyright (c) 2020 Devyani Sharma, Ashutosh Bansal
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