Soluble ACE2 as a potential therapy for COVID-19

Soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (sACE2) could be a therapeutic option to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) utilizes ACE2 receptors on cell surfaces to gain intra-cellular entry, making them an ideal target for therapy. High-affinity variants of sACE2, engineered using high-throughput muta-genesis, are capable of neutralizing COVID-19 infection as decoy receptors. These variants compete with native ACE2 present on cells by binding with spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2, making native ACE2 on cell surfaces available to convert angiotensin II to angiotensin-1,7, thus alleviating the exaggerated inflammatory response associated with COVID-19 infection. This article explores the use of sACE2 as potential therapy for COVID-19 infection.

Automated summary

Soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (sACE2) is a potential therapeutic option for treating COVID-19 infection by competing with native ACE2 on cell surfaces for binding with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, thereby alleviating the inflammatory response.