Sex differences in antiviral immunity in SARS‐CoV‐2 infection: Mitochondria and mitomiR come into view.

Inflammatory conditions, together with oxidative stress and cytokine storm, represent the main pathogenetic features of the ongoing global pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the recently discovered coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. A typical feature of COVID-19 is the oxidative stress conditions, created in the SARS-CoV-2-infected cells by an excessive activation of the immune response, leading to an exacerbated inflammatory responses described as "cytokine storm" and culminating in mitochondrial dysfunctions. Thus, investigations on the potential modulation of immune and inflammatory responses in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells by mitomiR could be interesting and helpful to better elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in immune evasion by SARS-CoV-2 and in COVID-19 pathogenesis. [Extracted from the article]