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Men’s blood has higher levels than women’s of a key enzyme used by the new coronavirus to infect cells, the results of a large European study on Monday showed, a finding that may help explain why men are more vulnerable to infection with COVID-19.
Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is found in the heart, kidneys, and other organs. In COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, is believed to play a role in how the infection progresses to the lungs.
The death and infection tolls suggest that men are more likely than women to contract the disease and suffer serious or critical complications if they do.
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, also found that widely prescribed medications called ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) did not lead to higher concentrations of ACE2, and therefore should not increase the risk of COVID-19 for people who take them.
ACE inhibitors and ARBs are widely prescribed for patients with congestive heart failure, diabetes, or kidney disease. Medicines account for billions of dollars in prescription sales worldwide.
“Our findings do not support discontinuation of these medications in patients with COVID-19,” said Adriaan Voors, a professor of cardiology at the Groningen University Medical Center (UMC) in the Netherlands, who co-led the study.
The COVID-19 pandemic has infected more than four million people worldwide and killed nearly 277,000, according to a Reuters count. The death and infection tolls suggest that men are more likely than women to contract the disease and suffer serious or critical complications if they do.
Analyzing thousands of men and women, the Voors team measured ACE2 concentrations in blood samples taken from more than 3,500 heart failure patients from 11 European countries.
The study had started before the coronavirus pandemic, the researchers said, so it did not include patients with COVID-19.
But when other research began pointing to ACE2 as key to the way the new coronavirus enters cells, Voors and his team saw significant overlaps with their study.
“When we discovered that one of the strongest biomarkers, ACE2, was much higher in men than women, I realized that this had the potential to explain why men were more likely to die from COVID-19 than women. “said Iziah Sama, a UMC Groningen doctor who co-led the study.
ACE2 is a receptor on the surface of cells that binds to the new coronavirus and allows it to enter and infect cells.
Sama and Voors noted that, in addition to the lung, ACE2 is found in the heart, kidneys, in the tissues that line the blood vessels, and at particularly high levels in the testes.
They said that their presence in the testes could partly explain the higher concentrations of ACE2 in men, and why men are more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Update date: May 11, 2020 12:23:46 IST
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