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Review
. 2023 Mar 2;186(5):906-922.
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.01.039. Epub 2023 Feb 2.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2-at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic

Gavin Y Oudit  1 , Kaiming Wang  2 , Anissa Viveiros  2 , Max J Kellner  3 , Josef M Penninger  4
Affiliations
Review

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2-at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic

Gavin Y Oudit et al. Cell. .

Abstract

ACE2 is the indispensable entry receptor for SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become one of the most therapeutically targeted human molecules in biomedicine. ACE2 serves two fundamental physiological roles: as an enzyme, it alters peptide cascade balance; as a chaperone, it controls intestinal amino acid uptake. ACE2's tissue distribution, affected by co-morbidities and sex, explains the broad tropism of coronaviruses and the clinical manifestations of SARS and COVID-19. ACE2-based therapeutics provide a universal strategy to prevent and treat SARS-CoV-2 infections, applicable to all SARS-CoV-2 variants and other emerging zoonotic coronaviruses exploiting ACE2 as their cellular receptor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests J.M.P. is named on the original patent (2002) using ACE2 as a therapeutic, including lung failure, and is a shareholder of Apeiron Biologics and JLP Health that are developing ACE2 as therapy. All remaining authors have nothing to disclose.

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