Specifically, the research (1) analyzes the conservation of the RRAR motif among circulating Mexican variants of SARS-CoV-2, using genomic sequences retrieved from the GISAID database, to confirm NRP1 as a stable viral entry receptor; (2) compares pulmonary gene expression profiles of NRP1 and ACE2 in healthy individuals and COVID-19 patients, using transcriptomic datasets obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO); and (3) assesses the in vivo efficacy of siRNA-mediated NRP1 knockdown in mitigating lung injury induced by melittin in a Wistar rat model. Here, ACE2 is linked to COVID-19.