Captopril alleviates lung inflammation in SARS-CoV-2-infected hypertensive mice
Wen‐Cong Gao, 昆明医科大学药学院暨云南省天然药物药理重点实验室，云南 昆明 650500，中国, Xin Ma, Peng Wang, Xiao-Yan He, Yong‐Tang Zheng, Feng‐Liang Liu, Chang‐Bo Zheng, 中国科学院动物模型与人类疾病机理重点实验室，生物安全大科学中心，中国科学院昆明动物研究所，云南 昆明 650223，中国, 中国科学院昆明动物研究所国家昆明高等级生物安全灵长类动物实验中心，生物安全大科学中心，云南 昆明 650107，中国
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the etiologic agent responsible for the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Numerous studies have demonstrated that cardiovascular disease may affect COVID-19 progression. In the present study, we investigated the effect of hypertension on viral replication and COVID-19 progression using a hypertensive mouse model infected with SARS-CoV-2. Results revealed that SARS-CoV-2 replication was delayed in hypertensive mouse lungs. In contrast, SARS-CoV-2 replication in hypertensive mice treated with the antihypertensive drug captopril demonstrated similar virus replication as SARS-CoV-2-infected normotensive mice. Furthermore, antihypertensive treatment alleviated lung inflammation induced by SARS-CoV-2 replication (interleukin (IL)-1β up-regulation and increased immune cell infiltration). No differences in lung inflammation were observed between the SARS-CoV-2-infected normotensive mice and hypertensive mice. Our findings suggest that captopril treatment may alleviate COVID-19 progression but not affect viral replication.