Search results for "angiotensin-converting enzyme 2"
showing 10 items of 30 documents
Cabbage and fermented vegetables: from death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID-19
2021
International audience; Large differences in COVID-19 death rates exist between countries and between regions of the same country. Some very low death rate countries such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, or the Balkans have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods. Although biases exist when examining ecological studies, fermented vegetables or cabbage have been associated with low death rates in European countries. SARS-CoV-2 binds to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). As a result of SARS-CoV-2 binding, ACE2 downregulation enhances the angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT1 R) axis associated with oxidative stress. This leads to insulin resistance …
Focus on clinical practice: angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and corona virus disease 2019: pathophysiology and clinical implications.
2020
: ACE2 receptor has a broad expression pattern in the cellular membrane and provides a protective action against the development of cardiovascular diseases. Recently, this enzyme has become of extreme interest during the pandemic infection of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). This virus invades alveolar epithelium and cardiomyocytes using ACE2 as a transmembrane receptor. ACE2 is a counter-regulatory peptide that degrades Ang II into Ang 1-7, thereby attenuating the biological effects of the AT1 receptor. The binding between the spike protein of COVID-19 and the enzyme is crucial for the virus to enter the target cells, but whether an increase in ACE2 activity could facilitate the infect…
The biomaterial polyphosphate blocks stoichiometric binding of the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein to the cellular ACE2 receptor
2020
The effect of the polyanionic polymer of inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) involved in innate immunity on the binding of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the cellular ACE2 receptor was studied. The RBD surface comprises a basic amino acid stretch of four arginine residues which interact with the physiological polyP (polyP40) and polyP3. Subsequently, the interaction of RBD with ACE2 is sensitively inhibited. After the chemical modification of arginine, an increased inhibition by polyP, at a 1 : 1 molar ratio (polyP : RBP), is measured already at 0.1 μg mL−1. Heparin was ineffective. The results suggest a potential therapeutic benefit of polyP against SARS-C…
Microscopic interactions between ivermectin and key human and viral proteins involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection
2021
The identification of chemical compounds able to bind specific sites of the human/viral proteins involved in the SARS-CoV-2 infection cycle is a prerequisite to design effective antiviral drugs. Here we conduct a molecular dynamics study with the aim to assess the interactions of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug with broad-spectrum antiviral activity, with the human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), the viral 3CLpro and PLpro proteases, and the viral SARS Unique Domain (SUD). The drug/target interactions have been characterized in silico by describing the nature of the non-covalent interactions found and by measuring the extent of their time duration along the MD simulation. Results …
COVID-19, Cation Dysmetabolism, Sialic Acid, CD147, ACE2, Viroporins, Hepcidin and Ferroptosis: A Possible Unifying Hypothesis.
2022
Background: iron and calcium dysmetabolism, with hyperferritinemia, hypoferremia, hypocalcemia and anemia have been documented in the majority of COVID-19 patients at later/worse stages. Furthermore, complementary to ACE2, both sialic acid (SA) molecules and CD147 proved relevant host receptors for SARS-CoV-2 entry, which explains the viral attack to multiple types of cells, including erythrocytes, endothelium and neural tissue. Several authors advocated that cell ferroptosis may be the core and final cell degenerative mechanism. Methods: a literature research was performed in several scientific search engines, such as PubMed Central, Cochrane Library, Chemical Abstract Service. More than 5…
Fatal neuroinvasion and SARS-CoV-2 tropism in K18-hACE2 mice is partially independent on hACE2 expression
2022
ABSTRACTAnimal models recapitulating distinctive features of severe COVID-19 are critical to enhance our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. Transgenic mice expressing human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) under the cytokeratin 18 promoter (K18-hACE2) represent a lethal model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The precise mechanisms of lethality in this mouse model remain unclear. Here, we evaluated the spatiotemporal dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection for up to 14 days post-infection. Despite infection and moderate pneumonia, rapid clinical decline or death of mice was invariably associated with viral neuroinvasion and direct neuronal injury (including brain and spinal neurons). Neuroinv…
The Obesity Paradox Predicts the Second Wave of COVID-19 to Be Severe in Western Countries.
2021
While COVID-19 infection and mortality rates are soaring in Western countries, Southeast Asian countries have successfully avoided the second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic despite high population density. We provide a biochemical hypothesis for the connection between low COVID-19 incidence, mortality rates, and high visceral adiposity in Southeast Asian populations. The SARS-CoV-2 virus uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a gateway into the human body. Although the highest expression levels of ACE2 are found in people’s visceral adipose tissue in Southeast Asia, this does not necessarily make them vulnerable to COVID-19. Hypothetically, high levels of visceral adiposity cause s…
Thermodynamics of the Interaction between the Spike Protein of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 and the Receptor of Human Angiotensin-…
2020
Since the end of 2019, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has caused more than 1000000 deaths all over the world and still lacks a medical treatment despite the attention of the whole scientific community. Human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) was recently recognized as the transmembrane protein that serves as the point of entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells, thus constituting the first biomolecular event leading to COVID-19 disease. Here, by means of a state-of-the-art computational approach, we propose a rational evaluation of the molecular mechanisms behind the formation of the protein complex. Moreover, the free energy of binding between ACE2 and the active receptor binding domain of the SARS…
Is the Rigidity of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Receptor-Binding Motif the Hallmark for Its Enhanced Infectivity? Insights from All-Atom Simulations
2020
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is setting the global health crisis of our time, causing a devastating societal and economic burden. An idiosyncratic trait of coronaviruses is the presence of spike glycoproteins on the viral envelope, which mediate the virus binding to specific host receptor, enabling its entry into the human cells. In spite of the high sequence identity of SARS-CoV-2 with its closely related SARS-CoV emerged in 2002, the atomic-level determinants underlining the molecular recognition of SARS-CoV-2 to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and, thus, the rapid virus spread into human body, remain unresolved. Here, multi-m…
The inorganic polymer, polyphosphate, blocks binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to ACE2 receptor at physiological concentrations
2020
Graphical abstract The inorganic physiological polymer, polyphosphate, blocks binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to ACE2 receptor at physiological concentrations. This discovery proposes polyphosphate as a new member of the host's antiviral innate immune defense.