Readers who are especially interested in the issue might like to consult Farsalinos’s overview of the issue, dated Apr. Another possibility is that nicotine has a beneficial effect on the renin-angiotensin system that is ordinarily in charge of controlling blood pressure. It appears that smoking might “up-regulate” production of the ACE2 enzyme that the SARS-CoV-2 virus uses to infiltrate the body. In principle (as I discussed early last month) this sounds bad, but it could actually be good: in effect, nicotine might be leaving smokers with protective “extra” ACE2. It is hard to assess this hypothesis because, until very recently, the conventional wisdom was that smoking down-regulates ACE2.

Source: National Post May 12, 2020 16:02 UTC