ave indicated an elevated cytokine/chemokine response in severe COVID-19 patients and identifies cytokine storm as the most potentially dangerous event for mortality (Coperchini et al., 2020; Rahmati & Moosavi, 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). Several kinases in the MAPK/ERK (mitogen-activated protein kinases/extracellular signal-regulated kinases) pathway are essential for viral replication. ERK1 and ERK2 phosphorylate HIV-1 proteins and enhance v