Emilsson, V, Gudmundsson, EF, Aspelund, T, Jonsson , BG, Gudjonsson, A, Lenore, JL, Jennings, Lori, Gudmundsdottir, V and Gudnason, V (2020) Antihypertensive drug treatment and serum ACE2 levels. https://medrxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.05.21.20108738v1.

Abstract

The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is associated with major respiratory failure where the old and those with an underlying chronic disease are at highest risk of mortality1. Several factors have been proposed that may be underlying the higher mortality rates in these high-risk groups. The most frequent comorbidities associated with COVID-19 related mortality are clinical hypertension and type 2 diabetes (T2D)2,3. Although lower survival can simply be attributed to the frailty of this population, it has been suggested that administration of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may affect the susceptibility to COVID-19 related outcomes by upregulating ACE24. It is well known that ACE2 is the cellular receptor that COVID-19 and other SARS coronaviruses bind to for entering the host cell5.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	COVID-19, SARS-CoV2, ACE2
Date Deposited:	07 Jul 2020 00:45
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2020 00:45
URI:	https://oak.novartis.com/id/eprint/42708