Cardiovascular Surgery and Interventions 2020, Vol 7, Num 1 Page(s): 039-039
ACE-gene polymorphism, particularly "D/I", may play a role in the occurrence of COVID-19 pneumonia in hypertensive elderly patients
DOI: 10.5606/e-cvsi.2020.779
Hakan Göçer1, Ahmet Barış Durukan2
1Department of Cardiology, Medical Park Uşak Hospital, Uşak, Turkey
2Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medical Park Uşak Hospital, Uşak, Turkey
Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system has an important role in the pathophysiology of high blood pressure.[1] Also, angiotensin II and bradykinin are vasoactive molecules with multiple acute and chronic effects on the cardiovascular system.[1,2] As stated in recent reports, COVID-19 pneumonia more frequently occurs in COVID-19-positive hypertensive elderly.[2] To the best our knowledge, COVID-19 pneumonia has a grave prognosis in hypertensive and elderly patients. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) genotype has been blamed for this course, and although the interaction between COVID-19 and ACE receptors interaction has been well defined, ACE genotype polymorphism has not been fully elucidated, yet.[3] In this infection, many researches and reports have shown the effect of ACE insertion deletion (I/D) gene polymorphism on risk, prognosis, and reaction to treatment of many diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, myocardial infarction, diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, and cancer.[3] It is well-known that ACE gene is located on chromosome 17 and polymorphism consists of three types within the intron 16 (DD, ID, II) and depends on heredity, ethnicity, and geographical considerations.[4] Furthermore, D/I type has been found more frequently in hypertension, diabetes, and myocardial infarction.[4] Prognosis is more grave in this genotype polymorphism. Our suggestion is that D/I type ACE gene polymorphism should be a research of interest for predicting prognosis and propensity of COVID-19 infection in hypertensive elderly patients.

Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

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