Recombinant human ACE2: potential therapeutics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its complication

Pang, Xiaocong; Cui, Yimin; Zhu, Yizhun

doi:10.1038/s41401-020-0430-6

Correspondence
Published: 24 June 2020

Recombinant human ACE2: potential therapeutics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its complication

Xiaocong Pang^1,2,
Yimin Cui² &
Yizhun Zhu^1,3

Acta Pharmacologica Sinica volume 41, pages 1255–1257 (2020)Cite this article

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Dear Editor,

Since December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan city, China, followed by global spread [1, 2]. As of 9 April, 2020, millions of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported, and the global death toll of SARS-CoV-2 infection has surged to tens of thousands of victims, making it a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). However, no specific antiviral drug or vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 treatment exists. The high infectivity and the increasing fatality of SARS-CoV-2 highlight the demand for drug discovery. SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) [2]. Full-genome sequencing analysis indicated that SARS-CoV-2 shares a high-sequence identity with SARS-CoV [3]. The spike protein (S-protein) of coronaviruses interacts with cell receptors to mediate viral entry into target cells [4]. Additional evidence suggests that both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 employ angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as the entry receptor and that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the S-protein directly binds to ACE2, triggering endocytosis of virus particles [5,6,7]. A recent study suggested that the binding affinity between ACE2 and the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 is 10–20 times stronger than that with the RBD of SARS-CoV [5], which likely explains the increased infectivity of SARS-CoV-2.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (No. 81973320, No.81673509, and No. 81903714) of China and the Macau Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) (No.0002/2019/APD, 067/2018/A2, 033/2017/AMJ, and 0007/2019/AKP).

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School of Pharmacy and State Key Laboratory for the Quality Research of Chinese Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China
Xiaocong Pang & Yizhun Zhu
Department of Pharmacy, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, 100034, China
Xiaocong Pang & Yimin Cui
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bioactive Small Molecules, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai, 201203, China
Yizhun Zhu

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Pang, X., Cui, Y. & Zhu, Y. Recombinant human ACE2: potential therapeutics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its complication. Acta Pharmacol Sin 41, 1255–1257 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41401-020-0430-6

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Received: 05 March 2020
Accepted: 22 April 2020
Published: 24 June 2020
Version of record: 24 June 2020
Issue date: September 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41401-020-0430-6

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