Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/hMEHBR2pb08   Men with greater androgen signaling and abundant circulating androgens have more severe CoVid infections with accompanying lung, heart, and kidney damage.  A collaborative Yale, Harvard, and UC-San Francisco study of 454 hospitalized CoVid positive British patients.   The free androgen level was significantly associated with viral susceptibility and disease severity in men but not in women.  Androgens are known to increase expression of the ACE2 molecule in human tissues, and it is this protein that binds CoVid19 permitting it to enter and infect cells.   The researchers suggest that already FDA approved androgen inhibiting drugs such as dutasteride and finasteride may have potential for inhibiting CoVid19 infections.   https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.091082v2.full.pdf   #covid #pandemic #ace2 #androgens #5alphareductaseinhibitor #dutasteride #finasteride