Fig. 4.

Possible mechanism of enhanced SARS-CoV-2 infection through mTOR inhibition. mTOR inhibitors can hinder mTOR mediated TFEB phosphorylation resulting in nuclear translocation of TFEB. Nuclear TFEB activates the genes promoting lysosomal activities including microautophagy, an autophagy related pathway. Microautophagy induces degradation of membrane proteins such as IFITM2 and IFITM3 which in turn promotes the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the cells by facilitating the fusion between viral and cell membrane