ACE2 and viral infectious disease: Although SARS-CoV-2 binds to the cells through ACE2 receptor that appears to have higher expression in IBD, one study found that ACE2 expression in the colonocytes was positively associated with genes regulating viral infection, innate, and cellular immunity, but was negatively associated with viral transcription, protein translation, humoral immunity, phagocytosis, and complement activation [32].