AUTHOR=Grisard Henrique Borges da Silva , Schörner Marcos André , Barazzetti Fernando Hartmann , Wachter Julia Kinetz , Valmorbida Manoela , Wagner Glauber , Fongaro Gislaine , Bazzo Maria Luiza TITLE=ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression in patients before, during, and after SARS-CoV-2 infection JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2024 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2024.1355809 DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2024.1355809 ISSN=2235-2988 ABSTRACT=

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) were constantly under the scientific spotlight, but most studies evaluated ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression levels in patients infected by SARS-CoV-2. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the expression levels of both proteins before, during, and after-infection. For that, nasopharyngeal samples from 26 patients were used to measure ACE2/TMPRSS2 ex-pression via qPCR. Symptomatic patients presented lower ACE2 expression levels before and after the infection than those in asymptomatic patients; however, these levels increased during SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, symptomatic patients presented higher expression levels of TMPRSS2 pre-infection, which decreased in the following periods. In summary, ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression levels are potential risk factors for the development of symptomatic COVID-19, and the presence of SARS-CoV-2 potentially modulates those levels.