‘Men have high levels of enzyme key to infection’

LONDON: 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 big European study showed on Monday – a finding which 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 novel coronavirus, it is thought to play a role in how the infection progresses into the lungs.

The study, published in the European Heart Journal, also found that widely-prescribed drugs called ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) did not lead to higher ACE2 concentrations and should therefore not increase the Covid-19 risk for people taking them. ACE inhibitors & ARBs are widely prescribed to patients with congestive heart failure, diabetes or kidney disease.

“When we found that one of the strongest biomarkers, ACE2, was much higher in men than in 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 doctor at University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, who co-led the study.

ACE2 is a receptor on the surface of cells which binds to the coronavirus and allows it to enter and infect cells. ACE2’s presence in tests may partially explain its higher concentrations in men.