Emerging Treatments for Coronavirus
ACE Blockers and Coronavirus Infections David Bishai, MD, MPH, PhD Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health March 19, 2020 After the SARS-CoV-2 virus gets into a person’s nose, throat, or lungs it can’t make them sick unless it actually gains entry into the inside of the epithelial cells that line those tissues. There is a receptor on human respiratory epithelial cells called the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE-2). Its usual job is to cleave proangiotensin into smaller molecules like angiotensin1-7 that help repair blood vessels in the lung. ( McKinney, et al. 2014 ) The SARS viruses became pathogens when they mutated to have an affinity for one small spot on human ACE-2 (Figure 1). When ACE-2 receptors are attacked there may be less angiotensin 1-7 and less ability to repair blood vessels in the lung. Gurwitz (2020) Figure 1. Electron microgram of the ACE-2 Receptor (Purple and Blue) and SARS-CoV-2 virus (Yellow) Source Yan et al. 2020 T