ACE2 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Therefore, apart from a higher prevalence of smoking and a deadly symbiosis of chronic systemic inflammation produced by chronic metabolic disease (such as obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes) in males (Mauvais-Jarvis, 2020) and a stronger innate and adaptive immune response to contagions in females, it is conceivable that ACE2 and its genetic variants also display gender-specific effects, which might be more decisive than epigenetic regulation for SARS-CoV-2 progression.