The M1 aminopeptidase N (APN) or CD13 cleavage event promotes viral activation (Chen et al., 2012) cancer angiogenesis and metastasis (Zhang and Xu, 2008; Wickström et al., 2011) making it a noteworthy target for the mediation of corona viral inflammation (Ruan et al., 2023) and anti-cancer, some of which reached clinical evaluation (Xu et al., 2011; Jiang et al., 2016). The gene discussed is ANPEP; the disease is cancer.