The role of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 () genetic variations in COVID-19 infection: a literature review.

BACKGROUND

The angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 () is recognized to be the fundamental receptor of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2), responsible for the worldwide Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. However, genetic differences between people besides racial considerations and their relation to disease susceptibility are still not fully elucidated.

MAIN BODY

To uncover the role of in COVID-19 infection, we reviewed the published studies that explore the association of COVID-19 with the functional characteristics of and its genetic variations. Notably, emerging studies tried to determine whether the variants and/or expression could be associated with SARS-CoV/SARS-CoV2 have conflicting results. Some researchers investigated the potential of "population-specific" genetic variations to impact the SARS-CoV2 vulnerability and suggested no ethnicity enrichment for polymorphisms that could influence SARS-CoV2 S-protein binding. At the same time, some studies use data mining to predict several variants that could enhance or decline susceptibility to SARS-CoV. On the other hand, fewer studies revealed an association of expression with COVID-19 outcome reporting higher expression levels of in East Asians.

CONCLUSIONS

gene variants and expression may modify the deleterious consequences of SARS-CoV2 to the host cells. It is worth noting that apart from the differences in gene expression and the genetic variations of , many other environmental and/or genetic factors could modify the disease outcome, including the genes for the innate and the adaptive immune response.