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Hispanics and blacks, more hit by the covid-19 5:01
(CNN Spanish) - Although we are still learning about the coronavirus, one aspect of the disease that has captured the attention of scientists is that men are more affected by the virus and are much more complicated compared to women.
In this episode, Dr. Elmer Huerta gives details of a study published in the European Journal of Cardiology on why men have more cases of coronavirus than women.
Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your daily dose of information about the new coronavirus, information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family. Today we will see why men are more susceptible to infection and damage from the new coronavirus.
One of the most intriguing observations of the pandemic is that the new coronavirus infects and complicates males more than females.
Regarding infection, statistics from various countries show that men are infected more frequently than women.
Similarly, the complications caused by the coronavirus are much more frequent in men than in women. It was thought to be because men could more frequently present risk factors such as high blood pressure and obesity.
However, a recent study, published in the European Journal of Cardiology on May 14, has found that men have more receptors for the viruses to enter their cells, which would make them become infected faster and more severely.
Let us remember this important issue of the receptors for the virus to enter cells.
As explained in previous episodes, the new coronavirus uses receptors called ACE2 to enter the body and infect cells.
These ACE2 receptors are very numerous in certain organs such as the nose, lungs, kidneys, intestines and heart, and they are also found in very high numbers in the endothelium or lining of blood vessels.
The ACE2 protein in the fight against the coronavirus 2:54It is important to know that those people who have abundant ACE2 receptors in their cells are able to eliminate them from their blood, therefore, by measuring the concentration of an enzyme of the same name in the blood, it is possible to have an idea of the number of receptors cell phones.
And that was precisely what the European researchers did in the study we are commenting on. They measured the concentrations of the enzyme ACE2 in 1,485 men and 537 women with heart failure, comparing it with those of 1,123 men and 575 women with the same disease.
The reason they chose heart failure patients is because that disease is known to increase the levels of the enzyme ACE2 in the blood.
The results indicated that in both groups, the men had a higher amount of the enzyme ACE2. In European patients it was 26% higher and in those registered only in Scotland, 19% higher.
The study also found that those taking ACE inhibitor-type blood pressure medications, such as captopril or lisinopril, and those taking angiotensin-2 inhibitor-type medications such as valsartan and losartan, were not affected by levels of ACE2 enzyme.
This is important because -as the authors say- it was once thought that patients taking this type of medication could increase their risk of infection or complication with the new coronavirus.
The authors conclude that men, both healthy and heart failure patients, have higher levels of the enzyme ACE2 in their blood, which would indicate that they have a greater amount of ACE2 receptors in their cells, which would make them more susceptible to infection and complications caused by the new coronavirus.
Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes. You can find me at @DrHuerta.
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And for the most up-to-date information, you can always go to CNNEspanol.com. Thanks for your attention.
If you have any questions, you can send them to Dr. Elmer Huerta on Twitter. You can also go to CNNE.com/coronaviruspodcast for all the episodes of our podcast “Coronavirus: Reality vs. fiction".
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