Dr. Josef Penninger provided a keynote lecture for the 2020 European Congress of Radiology online March 13, two days in advance of the scheduled meetings cancelled due to the eruption of coronavirus.
Focusing on his discovery of ACE-2 and its potential role in treating patients with COVID-19, Dr. Penninger spoke to “how we actually discovered ACE-2, how we got into the research, and how this led us to believe we may have this medicine that we now want to test for COVID-19.”
The medicine, APN01 is recombinant human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (rhACE2), developed following the March 2003 outbreak of SARS, for the treatment of acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. The treatment is currently being evaluated in patients with severe COVID-19 in a small clinical trial in China.