Higher pharyngeal epithelial gene expression of angiotensin-converting Enzyme-2 in patients with upper respiratory infection

Abstract

We analyzed the expression of ACE2 in the pharyngeal epithelium and examined its relationship with clinical features and serological parameters in patients with upper respiratory infection (URI). The expression level of the ACE2 gene was significantly higher in patients with URI (n = 125) than in healthy control (HC) individuals (n = 52) (p < 0.0001). The ACE2 gene expression level was significantly and positively correlated with age (r=0.1799, p = 0.0447) and body temperature (r=0.1927, p = 0.0427), which may help explain increasing coinfections with SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens.

Keywords

• SARS-CoV-2
• COVID-19
• ACE2
• Upper respiratory infection