Functional prediction and frequency of coding variants in human ACE2 at binding sites with SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein on different populations

Cruz, Juliana de O.; Conceição, Izabela M. C. A.; Sousa, Sandra Mara B.; Luizon, Marcelo R.

Hussain et al.(1) identified 17 natural coding variants for human angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) that were found at important positions for binding of ACE2 with SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein(1). They suggested that positive prognosis of COVID‐19 may be due to the existence of ACE2 variants like rs73635825 and rs143936283 in some individuals, and to screen frequencies of candidate alleles in different populations to predict the prognosis of COVID‐19(1). We contributed with further data for these 17 ACE2 variants using other function prediction tools. Moreover, we searched for the minor allele frequency (MAF) for these ACE2 variants as reported in different populations and debated regarding their use in population genetic studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.