Figure 4.

STATs as potential therapeutic targets in COVID-19 patients. Under conditions of excessive inflammation, maximum expression of many pro-inflammatory cytokine and IFN-stimulated genes has shown to depend on combinatorial actions of transcription factors of the STAT, IRF, and NF-kB families. This identifies STATs as potential therapeutic targets in severe COVID-19. Thus, a STAT-dependent pro-inflammatory gene signature could serve as a novel diagnostic tool to monitor and diagnose IFN responses, disease progression, and responses to treatment using blood or nasal swabs from COVID-19 patients (Left). On the other hand, the further testing and optimizing of already available Statinhibs, together with the identification of new Statinhibs using in silico 3D STAT modeling, virtual docking and screening, and in vitro validation, may offer new clinical benefits in combating immune hyper-activation during severe COVID-19 (Right).