AUTHOR=Kgatle Mankgopo Magdeline , Lawal Ismaheel Opeyemi , Mashabela Gabriel , Boshomane Tebatso Moshoeu Gillian , Koatale Palesa Caroline , Mahasha Phetole Walter , Ndlovu Honest , Vorster Mariza , Rodrigues Hosana Gomes , Zeevaart Jan Rijn , Gordon Siamon , Moura-Alves Pedro , Sathekge Mike Machaba TITLE=COVID-19 Is a Multi-Organ Aggressor: Epigenetic and Clinical Marks JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.752380 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2021.752380 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

The progression of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), resulting from a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, may be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Several viruses hijack the host genome machinery for their own advantage and survival, and similar phenomena might occur upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. Severe cases of COVID-19 may be driven by metabolic and epigenetic driven mechanisms, including DNA methylation and histone/chromatin alterations. These epigenetic phenomena may respond to enhanced viral replication and mediate persistent long-term infection and clinical phenotypes associated with severe COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Understanding the epigenetic events involved, and their clinical significance, may provide novel insights valuable for the therapeutic control and management of the COVID-19 pandemic. This review highlights different epigenetic marks potentially associated with COVID-19 development, clinical manifestation, and progression.