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Letter
Correlation between the use of statins and COVID-19: what do we know?
  1. Antonio Vitiello1,
  2. Raffaele La Porta2,
  3. Francesco Ferrara1
  1. 1 Pharmaceutical Department, USL 1 Umbria, Perugia, Italy
  2. 2 Clinical Pathology Department, AV1 Asur Marche, Urbino, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Antonio Vitiello, Pharmaceutical Department, USL 1 Umbria, Perugia 06121, Italy; antonio.vitiello2{at}uslumbria1.it

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111589

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    The COVID-19 global pandemic caused by the new Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 represents a challenge for the health of humanity, with few precedents. The new Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a severe form of viral pneumonia.1 The virus spread rapidly from China to the rest of the world in a very short time and with considerable intensity and severity creating a ‘global emergency’. Studies have shown that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) is the entry receptor of SARS-CoV-2 into host cells. Type II pneumocytes represent 83% of the cells expressing ACE-2 in the lung. ACE-2 receptor is also expressed in extrapulmonary tissues such as heart, brain, liver and kidneys. ACE-2 is an important regulatory enzyme in the renin–angiotensin system, catalysing the2 3 conversion of …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AV: writing. FF: validation: RLP: validation.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.