Imatinib as a tool Against COVID-19. a balancing act between effectiveness and cardiac safety

Despite tremendous ongoing efforts at prevention, diagnosis, risk-stratification, management, and rehabilitation, COVID-19 still represents a crucial threat for public health, and it continue to cause an enormous burden of death, hospitalization, and disability. This holds true despite almost universal vaccine and booster coverage and the availability of several new treatments approved or under investigation for COVID-19 infection, aimed at preventing severe symptoms and hospital admission, including imatinib.1 Indeed, imatinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, largely used for the treatment of hematological tumors and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), at the moment being tested for clinical use in severe COVID-19 because of its action on endothelial dysfunction, which is an important pathway involved in COVID-19 infection