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. 2020 Sep 22;5(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s41231-020-00067-w

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

The effect of ACE2 expression levels on COVID-19 disease and severity. Age, genetics, and different comorbidities affect the pre-infection ACE2 expression levels in a subset of individuals (left), rendering them susceptible to severe forms of disease. During infection (right), upon interaction of SARS-CoV-2 S protein with ACE2 and TMPRSS2, ACE2 levels are downregulated. Those individuals with low pre-infection ACE2 levels reach a threshold critical value corresponding to the onset of severe symptomathologies due to RAAS imbalance