Could heart medications increase COVID-19 risk?

Mouse study takes tissue-specific look at how blood pressure medications affect SARS-CoV-2 receptors

2021-04-26

(Press-News.org) During infection, SARS-CoV-2 binds to a cellular receptor known as angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) before entering a cell and replicating. Because it is not well established whether common blood pressure medications can increase the levels of ACE2, there has been some concern that patients taking these medications might be more susceptible to COVID-19.

In a new study, researchers led by Hans Ackerman, MD, DPhil, in the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research (LMVR) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, found that mice treated with an ACE inhibitor blood pressure medication showed increased levels of ACE2. However, mice that received both an ACE inhibitor and a different blood pressure medicine known as an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) did not exhibit the increase.

"Based on these findings, we recommend that researchers analyze existing and ongoing clinical studies to determine whether people on ACE inhibitor-ARB combination therapy show different COVID-19 susceptibility, complications and outcomes than patients taking only an ACE inhibitor or ARB medication," said Steven Brooks, PhD, a post-doctoral research fellow in the Ackerman laboratory.

Aline da Silva Moreira, PhD, a post-doctoral research fellow in the Ackerman laboratory, will present the new research at the END

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Could heart medications increase COVID-19 risk?

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