PuSH - Publication Server of Helmholtz Zentrum München: Smoking increases expression of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-binding long ACE2 isoform in bronchial epithelium.

Navigation

Home

Deutsch

Research

Advanced Search

Browse by ...

... Journal

... Publication Type

... Research Data

... Publication Year

Publication overview

Support & Contact

Contact persons

Help

Data protection

Pouwels, S.D.* ; van den Berge, M.* ; Vasse, G.F.* ; Timens, W.* ; Brandsma, C.A.* ; Aliee, H. ; Hiemstra, P.S.* ; Guryev, V.* ; Faiz, A.*

Smoking increases expression of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-binding long ACE2 isoform in bronchial epithelium.

Respir. Res. 24:130 (2023)

DOI

PMC

Open Access Gold as soon as Publ. Version/Full Text is submitted to ZB.

Abstract
Metrics
Extra information

After more than two years the COVID-19 pandemic, that is caused by infection with the respiratory SARS-CoV-2 virus, is still ongoing. The risk to develop severe COVID-19 upon SARS-CoV-2 infection is increased in individuals with a high age, high body mass index, and who are smoking. The SARS-CoV-2 virus infects cells of the upper respiratory tract by entering these cells upon binding to the Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. ACE2 is expressed in various cell types in the lung but the expression is especially high in goblet and ciliated cells. Recently, it was shown that next to its full-length isoform, ACE2 also has a short isoform. The short isoform is unable to bind SARS-CoV-2 and does not facilitate viral entry. In the current study we investigated whether active cigarette smoking increases the expression of the long or the short ACE2 isoform. We showed that in active smokers the expression of the long, active isoform, but not the short isoform of ACE2 is higher compared to never smokers. Additionally, it was shown that the expression of especially the long, active isoform of ACE2 was associated with secretory, club and goblet epithelial cells. This study increases our understanding of why current smokers are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, in addition to the already established increased risk to develop severe COVID-19.

Altmetric

Additional Metrics?

[➜Log in]

Edit extra informations Login

Publication type Article: Journal article

Document type Scientific Article

Corresponding Author

Keywords Ace2 ; Covid-19 ; Cigarette Smoking ; Sars-cov-2

ISSN (print) / ISBN 1465-9921

e-ISSN 1465-993X

Journal Respiratory Research

Quellenangaben Volume: 24, Issue: 1, Article Number: 130

Publisher BioMed Central

Publishing Place Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9xw, England

Non-patent literature Publications

Reviewing status Peer reviewed

Institute(s) Institute of Computational Biology (ICB)