ACE2 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Despite atheroprotective attributes of ACE2, the underlying pathophysiological conditions such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), malignancies [48] and cofounding factors including cigarette smoking [49], and age [50] tend to upregulate ACE2 receptors which adds further complexity to becoming highly detrimental when binding to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.