Targeting ACE2 for COVID-19 Therapy: Opportunities and Challenges.

COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping the globe, even with the effective vaccine is on the horizon, new cases, and escalating mortality climbing every day. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the primary receptor for COVID-19 causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, and its complexation with spike proteins plays a crucial role in viral entry into host cells and the subsequent infection. Blocking this binding event, or reducing the accessibility of the virus to the ACE2 receptor, represents an alternative strategy to prevent COVID-19 disease. In addition, the biological significance of ACE2 in modulating the innate immune system and tissue repair cascades anchors its therapeutic potential for treating the infected patients. In this viewpoint article, we review the current efforts of exploiting ACE2 as a therapeutic target to address this dire medical need. We also provide a holistic view of the pros and cons of each treatment strategy. We highlight the fundamental and translational challenges in moving these research endeavors to clinical applications. This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).