Higher pharyngeal epithelial gene expression of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 in upper respiratory infection patients.

We analyzed the expression of ACE2 in pharyngeal epithelium and examined its relationship with clinical features and serological parameters in the upper respiratory infection (URI) patients. The expression level of ACE2 gene was significantly higher in URI patients (n = 125) than in Healthy control (HC) individuals (n = 52) (p < 0.0001). ACE2 gene expression level was significantly and positively correlated with age (r=0.1799, p = 0.0447) and body temperature (r=0.1927, p = 0.0427), which may help explain increasing coinfections with SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens.