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First described in December 2019 in Wuhan (China), COVID-19 disease rapidly spread worldwide, constituting the biggest pandemic in the last 100 years. Even if SARS-CoV-2, the agent responsible for COVID-19, is mainly associated with pulmonary injury, evidence is growing that this virus can affect many organs, including the heart and vascular endothelial cells, and cause haemostasis, CNS, and kidney and gastrointestinal tract abnormalities that can impact in the disease course and prognosis. In fact, COVID-19 may affect almost all the organs. Hence, SARS-CoV-2 is essentially a systemic infection that can present a large number of clinical manifestations, and it is variable in distribution and severity, which means it is potentially life-threatening. The goal of this comprehensive review paper in the series is to give an overview of non-pulmonary involvement in COVID-19, with a special focus on underlying pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2), emerging in Wuhan city, China, causing COVID-19 disease, has been described as a pandemic by WHO (World Health Organization), leading to outbreaks of pneumonia. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect millions of people worldwide. SARSCOV- 2 enters the cell via ACE-2 (Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) receptor. These receptors are predominantly found in lung, small intestine, and vascular endothelial cells. Since ACE 2 is found more frequently in these tissues, common clinical symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue, dyspnea, and diarrhea. Currently, although symptomatic treatments are applied for COVID-19, there is no specific treatment yet. It takes a long time before targeted therapies can be found. For this reason, it is necessary to develop emergency treatment or methods that can quickly control the disease. Phytotherapeutic compositions offer a potentially valuable resource for this purpose. Many countries, especially China, aimed to reduce morbidity and mortality by using phytotherapy throughout COVID-19 patients. Phytotherapeutic products are known to be safe and tolerable with their background knowledge. In this regard, the use of phytotherapy as a complementary treatment in COVID-19 patients is very important. In this review, phytotherapeutic approaches related to symptoms that may occur in the clinical course of COVID-19 disease will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the seventh human coronavirus infectious disease, was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, followed by its rapid spread globally (251,059 deaths, on May 5, 2020, by Johns Hopkins University). An early clinical report showed that fever, cough, fatigue, sputum production, and myalgia were initial symptoms, with the development of pneumonia as the disease progressed. Increases in the level of serum liver enzymes, D-dimer, cardiac troponin I, and creatinine have been observed in severely ill patients, indicating that multiple organ failure had occurred in these cases. Lymphopenia and an increase in interleukin-6 (IL-6) were also observed. Although COVID-19 patients are administered glucocorticoid therapy to treat the excessive immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, the efficacy of this form of therapy is unclear. Viremia is observed in severe cases, suggesting that in addition to type II alveolar epithelial cells, many cell types, such as vascular endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes, renal tubular cells, neuronal cells, and lymphocytes, may be damaged. The improvement of survival rates requires elucidation of the mechanism by which cellular damage occurs during viral infection. Cellular therapy, along with organ support systems such as oxygen therapy, artificial ventilation, extra corporeal membrane oxygenation and dialysis, as well as antiviral therapy, are required. Viral replication in infected host cells may perturb protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), causing ER stress. Although an adaptive cellular response, i.e. the unfolded protein response, can compensate for the misfolded protein burden to some extent, continued viral proliferation may induce inflammation and cell death. Therefore, we propose that proteostasis dysfunction may cause conformational disorders in COVID-19. The application of pharmacological chaperone therapy to treat COVID-19 patients is additionally discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]