Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors May Increase Risk of Severe COVID-19 Infection

Abstract

Coronavirus is a pathogen that hasbeen known to medicine for a long time with 39 different genotypes,which fall under the broad realm of Riboviria, which mainly target the human respiratory system.The novel coronavirus disease 2019is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). This virus has an enveloped single-stranded positive strand RNA structure and it uses the spike projection as a key to enter cells, the S protein has great significance because of its function in receptor binding.This new coronavirus belongs to the beta-genus coronavirus, it has been reported that coronavirus disease 2019has 79.5% homologousity with SARS-CoV, and their receptors are angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).Furthermore, several countries have started to treat coronavirus-infected patients with repurposed therapeutics such as HIV protease inhibitors (Ritonavir) and Kaletra, because clinical trials are taking a long time and there is no effective targeted treatment to cure the patient with the disease. This review article is questioning the role of Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in COVID-19 infection severity and treatment.