Current smoking is not associated with COVID-19

[摘要] We have read with interest the paper by LEUNG et al. [1] recently published in the European Respiratory Journal, reporting a higher expression of the protein angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE-2) in the small airway epithelia of smokers and COPD patients with putatively important implications for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, since ACE-2 has been shown to be the receptor utilised by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to enter the host cell [2]. Furthermore, the authors reported that current smokers showed a higher expression of ACE-2 gene expression than non-smokers, concluding that the increased ACE-2 expression in smokers might predispose to increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection [1].

[学科分类] 呼吸医学