Editorial: Cell cycle control as a new therapeutic approach for SARS-CoV-2 infection

SARS-CoV-2 is able to control cellular pathways, remodeling their ability to contrast viral infection.The peculiar ability of SARS-CoV-2 to degrade p53 leads to decreased cell apoptosis favoring viral 21 growth in infected cells as well as to the loss of the antiviral activity of p53. In this regard, p53 is a 22 pleiotropic molecule related to antiviral innate immune responses carried out particularly by 23 inducing apoptosis of infected cells and mediating type I interferon (IFN) production/signaling. In 24 the context of antiviral immunity, p53 plays therefore a critical role and perhaps this is why it 25 represents a frequent viral target. The inhibition of virus-target cells apoptosis exacerbates 26 inflammation increasing the levels of key inflammatory mediators, referred as "cytokine storm".The current pharmacological approaches to control SARS-CoV-2 infection are mainly aimed to 28 interfere with binding and entry of viruses into human cells, to interfere with the translation and 29 proteolysis of the polyprotein complex, to interfere with the replication of viral RNA, to inhibit viral This editorial is drafted by RR and GZ, and revised by FC and GV.