Coronaviruses   Send Orders for Reprints to reprints@benthamscience.net Coronaviruses, 2021, 2, 187-192 187 MINI-REVIEW ARTICLE Can Cannabinoids Suppress the Cytokines Cascade in Patients with Coronavirus Disease COVID-19? A Mini-Review Hanane Zaki 1,* and Mohammed Bouachrine 1 1 Molecular Chemistry and Natural Substances Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Moulay Ismail University of Meknes, Morocco EST Khenifra, Sultan Moulay Sliman University, Khenifra, Morocco A R T I C L E H I S T O R Y Received: May 26, 2020 Revised: July 20, 2020 Accepted: July 21, 2020 DOI: 10.2174/2666796701999200915144255 Abstract: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, started in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and became a global pandemic. According to WHO, more than fourteen million cases were reported and thousands of casualties worldwide (until July 18, 2020). Most of the COVID-19 pa- tients have symptoms such as fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some people may also experience body aches, nasal congestion, a runny nose, and diarrhea. So far, doctors have been using treatment to relieve symptoms and give patients' immune systems time to regain control of this virus. Many studies have high- lighted the important role of cytokine cascades in the death rate in COVID-19 patients. Therefore, inhibi- tion of this phenomenon has become a very important target in the clinical management of this disease. With this idea, in this mini-review, we will focus on the potential role of cannabinoids in the suppression of cytokines cascades in patients with COVID-19 and their importance in the clinical management of this disease. Keywords: Cannabinoids, THC, CBD, cytokines, COVID-19, SARS-COV-2. 1. INTRODUCTION Since the appearance of Severe Acute Respiratory Syn- drome (SARS) at the end of February 2003 [1] and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 [2], the coronavirus family has shown a real threat to human health. Therefore, scientists have warned about the appearance of a virus from the same family, that can be fatal to control. The year 2019 was marked by the appearance of this expected virus SARS-COV-2 (Fig. 1) which causes coronavirus dis- ease 2019 (COVID-19) [3]. The pandemic suspected to originate in Wuhan, China and in seven months it has killed thousands of people and has affected more fourteen million worldwide [4]. There is any treatment or vaccine against this disease, however, the abundance of cases gives a lot of in- formation to physicians and scientists concerning the man- agement and treatment of this disease. There are some strategies requiring validation, like repurposing drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, favipiravir, remdesivir, lopinavir, and ritonavir [5-7]. Wuhan’s doctors described an early clinical management protocol for this disease as follows, the use of early antiviral treatment for timely elimination of pathogens [8], anti-shock and anti-hypoxemia treatment by using glucocorticoids when necessary, suppression of cyto- kines cascade and oxygen therapy for hypoxemia, [9] also the use of antibiotics to prevent secondary infection. This *Address correspondence to this author at the Molecular Chemistry and Natural Substances Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Moulay Ismail Univer- sity of Meknes, Morocco EST Khenifra, Sultan Moulay Sliman University, Khenifra, Morocco; Tel. +212657047326; E-mail: mmezakihanane@gmail.com protocol is described in a handbook published by Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China [10]. In this handbook, they emphasized the importance of suppressing cytokines cascades in the clinical management of the COVID-19. Cytokine-mediated inflammation, also described as a cytokine storm, is a characteristic of the Acute Respira- tory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) which is noticed in patients with COVID-19 [11]. Clinical studies in patients with COVID-19 have shown high levels of interleukin1β (IL1β), interleukin6 (IL6), interleukin8 (IL8), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) [12]. Other studies have highlighted the importance of cytokines storm suppression in reducing COVID-19 mortality [12-14]. Therefore, cytokine suppres- sion becomes an important target in the clinical management of this disease [15]. Cannabis and cannabinoid-based chemicals (Fig. 2) have become increasingly accepted by the scientific community as pharmacologically active compounds [16]. In addition to their analgesic effect, cannabinoids have an important effect on the immune system and inflammatory responses, they also affect digestive organs, including the pancreas and liver [17]. Furthermore, cannabinoids are antispasmodic, antitu- mor, appetite-stimulating, anti-emetic, anticonvulsant, seda- tive, hypnotic, antipsychotic, and antioxidant [18, 19]. Therefore, we will discuss briefly in this mini-review, the potential role of cannabinoids in the suppression of cytokines cascades in patients with COVID-19 and their importance in the clinical management of this disease, after describing how SARS-COV-2 infect the cells, the host immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, and the COVID-19 -associated acute respira- tory distress syndrome. 2666-7975/21 $65.00+.00 © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers