Abstract
Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in COVID-19 patients, especially in younger patients. Our hypothesis was that intestinal SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 expression depends on patients’ age. We examined duodenal biopsies from 43 healthy human adults. ACE2 gene expression was directly correlated with age (Spearman’s r = 0.317, p = 0.039). With each year, duodenal ACE2 expression increased by 0.083 RU. The higher intestinal ACE2 mRNA expression in older patients may impact on their susceptibility to develop intestinal symptoms.
Highlights
In December 2019, a novel infectious disease, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), was detected in Wuhan, China, causing the serious epidemic COVID-19 (Zhang 2020)
Reported gastrointestinal manifestations of COVID-19 are common and range from nausea and vomiting to diarrhea and abdominal discomfort with more than 10% of patients presenting with diarrhea (Jin 2020; Gu et al 2020)
The pathophysiology of diarrhea in COVID19 patients remains unclear, but might be reflective of damage to the gastrointestinal tract and/or altered intestinal permeability resulting in malabsorption and diarrhea
Summary
In December 2019, a novel infectious disease, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), was detected in Wuhan, China, causing the serious epidemic COVID-19 (Zhang 2020). Similar to the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that had caused outbreaks from 2002 to 2004, SARS-CoV-2 binds via its spikes to its receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) with high affinity on cell surfaces (Hoffmann 2020; Walls 2020). This may enable SARS-CoV-2 to spread from person to person and make ACE2 a potential target for vaccines and therapies. ACE2 is abundantly present in humans on epithelial cells of the lung (alveolar epithelial type II cells), kidney, Handling Editor: F.
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