Fig. 4.

p38 inhibitors reduce IL6 and CXCL8 expression in ex vivo infected human lung explants A) Human lung explants were infected with 10⁶ PFU/well SARS-CoV-2 for 72 h (n = 5). Infectious virus in the supernatants was determined by plaque assay. Bars indicate means ± SEM. B) Visualization of SARS-CoV-2 N protein, ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in human lung explants 48 h after ex vivo infection with 10⁶ PFU/well by immunohistochemistry. C) Gene expression in human lung explants infected for 48 h with 1 × 10⁶ PFU/well SARS-CoV-2 in the presence or absence of the respective p38 inhibitors VX-702 and PH-797804. Expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and ISGs was determined by qRT-PCR. Data represent means ± SEM from at least 5 patients. Statistical significance was determined with one-way-ANOVA followed by Dunnett's multiple comparison test. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.