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Open Access 01-12-2020 | COVID-19 | Review

The lethal sex gap: COVID-19

Authors: Eladio J. Márquez, Jennifer Trowbridge, George A. Kuchel, Jacques Banchereau, Duygu Ucar

Published in: Immunity & Ageing | Issue 1/2020

Abstract

While Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is disrupting lives across the globe for everyone, it has a more devastating impact on the health of older adults, especially that of older men. This pandemic has highlighted the crucial importance of considering an individual’s age and biological sex in the clinic in addition to other confounding diseases (Kuchel, G.A, J Am Geriatr Soc, 67, 203, 2019, Tannenbaum, C., Nature, 575 451-458, 2009) As an interdisciplinary team of scientists in immunology, hematology, genomics, bioinformatics, and geriatrics, we have been studying how age and sex shape the human immune system. Herein we reflect on how our recent findings on the alterations of the immune system in aging might contribute to our current understanding of COVID-19 infection rate and disease risk.

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Title: The lethal sex gap: COVID-19
Authors: Eladio J. Márquez
Jennifer Trowbridge
George A. Kuchel
Jacques Banchereau
Duygu Ucar
Publication date: 01-12-2020
Publisher: BioMed Central
Keyword: COVID-19
Published in: Immunity & Ageing / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1742-4933
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12979-020-00183-z

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