the role of autophagy in respiratory complications of covid-19

Background: the rapid spreading of corona virus disease 2019 (covid-19) worldwide results in pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in many patients, which can be the major cause of death in cases with covid-19. it has been reported that chloroquine (cq) has improved covid-19 induced pneumonia in clinical trials.objectives: since cq and its derivatives are proved to exhibit anti-autophagy properties based on previous studies, autophagy can be introduced as a possible mechanism of respiratory complications.methods: in the current study, we reviewed papers of google scholar database with no time limitation. results: it was revealed that autophagy has an important role in the manifestation of covid-19 respiratory complications conclusions: autophagy is triggered by sar-scov2 virus for its replication and autophagy inhibitory treatments might be considered promising therapeutics.