Ageing, ACE2 deficiency and bad outcome in COVID-19
Fabio Angeli, Gianpaolo Reboldi, Paolo Verdecchia
Abstract
The rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) across the world and the evidence of critical or fatal disease among hospitalized patients induced a lot of basic and clinical research on the potential prognostic factors for adverse outcome The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created a list of established risk factors that have been associated with severe disease It includes specific epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory features (age, cancer, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, obesity, D-dimer, troponin, C reactive protein, and lymphocyte count) as established by observational studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses [1]. Among these, ageing is strongly associated with mortality to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), and it has been recognized as an independent marker of severe illness and death In a report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the overall case-fatality rate of COVID-19 was 2.3% (1,023 deaths among 44,672 confirmed cases). No deaths occurred in the group aged 9 years or younger, but rates of death were 8 and 15% among patients aged 70-79 and 80 years or older, respectively