ace-2 expression and methylation pattern in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and bloods of iranian ards covid-19 patients

The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression and methylation pattern of the angiotensin i converting enzyme 2 (ace-2) in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ards) covid-9 patients. a total of 25 patients with covid-19 ards and 20 controls were recruited. expression of the ace-2 gene was evaluated by quantitative real time pcr, and methylation of cpg dinucleotides, in the ace-2 promoter, was quantified using bisulfite pyro-sequencing. our results showed high expression of the ace-2 gene in the blood samples of adrs patients (1.93± 0.67) in comparison to controls (0.62±0.35) (p = 0.03). correspondingly, in ards bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (balf) samples, there was a high expression of this gene (1.8±0.78) in comparison to controls (0.58±0.2) (p <0.05). moreover, the methylation rate of the ace-2 gene in blood samples of ards patients was 64.07 ±6.1 in comparison to controls (80.3 ±7.3) (p<0.0001).  in balf samples, there was this pattern too (55.07 ±3.1 vs. 72.35±5.1) (p<0.0001). finally, a significant correlation was found between expression and methylation in balf (r= -0.54, p= 0.002) and blood (r= -0.321, p= 0.013) samples. these results indicated that aberrant methylation of the ace-2 promoter might be associated with high expression of this gene and the occurrence of ards in covid-19 patients.