Today my laptop was working on project 14909. This project relates to COVID-19 virus transfection. Every project with F@H has short description and a reference to the research institution and project leader:
https://shuklagroup.org/ - project 14909 researcher webpage.
What I learned today by contributing my laptop power to science is that Covid-19 virus infects cell via ACE2 receptor. ACE2 sits on the cell membrane. There are great illustrations on how transfection works in this article:
What is ACE2, where it can be found and why this is important?
Renin-angiotensing system regulates blood pressure and Angiotensin is a hormone that increases blood pressure by causing vasoconstriction.
ACE2 lowers blood pressure by reducing the amount of Angiotensin II. ACE2 exists in many tissues and organs incl. ❤️ heart, arterials, lungs, kidney. It sits on the cell membranes as mentioned above. I assume all the organs should regulate blood pressure and ACE2 enzyme and receptor is one of the protein involved in this process.
ACE2 is an important point of research because it is the main entry point of COVID-19 and some other viruses.
How ACE2 research can help fight diseases and are there any new treatments being developed?
Querying clinical trials database just by ACE2 returns 11 active clinical trials:
This is a link to ACE2 trials and everyone can search database to find other clinical trials. clintrials.gov database is open to the general public.
Clinical trials are very expensive, cost millions of dollars. This means we have a good chance that some studies will deliver successful treatments. And Covid-19 will be successfully treated or eliminated.
Most exiting part of this story is that everyone can participate in fundamentals research by donating computer power to scientists.
Entry points are here:
