Goodness. Slow down.
It appears this corona virus attaches and accesses the host cell’s via a surface protein called ace2. That is a random unimportant detail, BUT that ace2 expression (the number of receptors the cell places in the surface) increases when one takes an ace inhibitor.
Ace2 receptors are mostly in lung and heart tissues.
There is investigational SPECULATION that per chance, MAYBE this plays a role in who gets sick, how severely they become ill, etc. It is not proven, but just early conjecture. As with A LOT of things in medicine, what appears an obvious discovery, proves later to not be what it seems.
The paper cited above contains an entire chart citing organizations worldwide saying, essentially, “this is interesting, but for lack of durable evidence yet, we recommend no changes to taking ace inhibitors.”
In other words, ace inhibitor use as a RISK (not a preventive) is a theory that is consistent with why those with sundry health issues may be more vulnerable - because ace is widely used (and well proven) in a number of settings. Older you are, the more likely one is on an ace inhibitor. But it is just one theory among many needed to be worked through.
I really did not want to type this out, because now there will be a flood of persons demanding their doctor change their ace to something else. Or persons stop taking their ace to their own detriment. But, the alternative is i let ya’ll go on 180deg from what this article says, so there you go.
This is the conclusion I thought they had reached but the first part of the article seemed to suggest lisinopril would prevent the infection. Very confusing.
