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Emerging evidence has demonstrated that endothelial dysfunction precipitates COVID-19 and its accompanying multi-organ injuries. Thus, pharmacotherapies targeting endothelial dysfunction have potential to ameliorate COVID-19 and its cardiovascular complications. The objective of the present study is to evaluate whether kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2), a master regulator of vascular homeostasis, represents a therapeutic target for COVID-19-induced endothelial dysfunction. Here, we demonstrate that the expression of KLF2 was reduced and monocyte adhesion was increased in endothelial cells treated with COVID-19 patient serum due to elevated levels of pro-adhesive molecules, ICAM1 and VCAM1. IL-1\u03b2 and TNF-\u03b1, two cytokines elevated in cytokine release syndrome in COVID-19 patients, decreased KLF2 gene expression. Pharmacologic (atorvastatin and tannic acid) and genetic (adenoviral overexpression) approaches to augment KLF2 levels attenuated COVID-19-serum-induced increase in endothelial inflammation and monocyte adhesion. Next-generation RNA-sequencing data showed that atorvastatin treatment leads to a cardiovascular protective transcriptome associated with improved endothelial function (vasodilation, anti-inflammation, antioxidant status, anti-thrombosis\/-coagulation, anti-fibrosis, and reduced angiogenesis). Finally, knockdown of KLF2 partially reversed the ameliorative effect of atorvastatin on COVID-19-serum-induced endothelial inflammation and monocyte adhesion. Collectively, the present study implicates loss of KLF2 as an important molecular event in the development of COVID-19-induced vascular disease and suggests that efforts to augment KLF2 levels may be therapeutically beneficial.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41392-021-00690-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,12]],"date-time":"2021-07-12T04:02:39Z","timestamp":1626062559000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":56,"title":["The zinc finger transcription factor, KLF2, protects against COVID-19 associated endothelial dysfunction"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5488-5217","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Suowen","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yujie","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yu","family":"Ding","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sihui","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xueying","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiumei","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhenghong","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iqra","family":"Ilyas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Suyu","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shuxin","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0335-3835","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peter J.","family":"Little","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mukesh K.","family":"Jain","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7889-1697","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianping","family":"Weng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"690_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"141","DOI":"10.1038\/s41579-020-00459-7","volume":"19","author":"B Hu","year":"2021","unstructured":"Hu, B., Guo, H., Zhou, P. & Shi, Z. 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