Table of contents:
Men are harder to tolerate COVID-19. Perhaps scientists have found out the reason
The risk of contracting COVID-19 is approximately the same for men and women, but for men, the coronavirus is significantly more dangerous. The whole thing may be in the enzyme that helps the virus to enter the body.
Photo: pixabay.com
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists and the media have repeatedly reported that men are harder to tolerate the infection and more likely to die from it than women. In a new scientific paper, which was published in the European Heart Journal, scientists provide a likely explanation for the reasons for these phenomena.
One of the reasons men suffer more from coronavirus than women may be due to the higher concentration of angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) in their blood. This enzyme is normally involved in the regulation of blood pressure. Usually it is located on the surface of cell membranes; the coronavirus uses it as an “entrance gate” to the body.
In the study, the researchers analyzed ACE2 levels in approximately 3,500 people with heart failure. None of them were infected with the coronavirus.
“When we saw that the level of one of the most important biomarkers, ACE2, was much higher in men than in women, we realized that this could be a potential explanation that men are more likely to die from COVID-19,” said Izaya Sama (Iziah Sama) from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands.
ACE2 is present in several organs, including the lungs. Scientists point out that there is a link between the severity of COVID-19 and the amount of ACE2 in the lungs.
Since this study involved only people with heart failure who did not have COVID-19, the results cannot prove that the severity of the disease depends on the ACE2 level. In scientific work, scientists only put forward a version according to which the causes of the course of this infection in men and women are different.
