Mayo Clinic proceedings
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly caused a global pandemic associated with a novel respiratory infection: coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) is necessary to facilitate SARS-CoV-2 infection, but-owing to its essential metabolic roles-it may be difficult to target it in therapies. Transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2), which interacts with ACE2, may be a better candidate for targeted therapies. ⋯ Given the increased severity of disease among older men with SARS-CoV-2 infection, we address the potential roles of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in their contribution to the sex differences in severity of disease. We show that expression levels of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are overall comparable between men and women in multiple tissues, suggesting that differences in the expression levels of TMPRSS2 and ACE2 in the lung and other non-sex-specific tissues may not explain the gender disparities in severity of SARS CoV-2. However, given their instrumental roles for SARS-CoV-2 infection and their pleiotropic expression, targeting the activity and expression levels of TMPRSS2 is a rational approach to treat COVID-19.
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Mayo Clinic proceedings · Sep 2020
Low Utility of Repeat Real-Time PCR Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Clinical Specimens.
In a multicenter cohort of 22,315 patients tested for COVID-19, 1676 (7.5%) had repeat testing via real-time polymerase chain reaction following an initial negative test. Of those retested within 7 days of their first negative test, only 2.0% had a positive result. This suggests that repeat testing from the same source is unlikely to provide additional information.