ADAM17 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: COPD has been shown to be associated with increased expression of ACE2 (Leung et al, 2020), and a recent study on the effects of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) on the bronchial epithelial cell expression of SARS‐CoV‐2‐related genes in COPD patients demonstrated that a treatment with ICS in combination with salmeterol/fluticasone propionate decreased the expression of ACE2 and ADAM17 (preprint: Milne et al, 2020).