ACE2 and COVID-19: During COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 binds ACE2 and triggers clathrin- and AP2-dependent endocytosis, followed by lysosomal degradation, leading to reduced membrane-bound ACE2 expression (Gheblawi et al., 2020; Jackson et al., 2022; Lu et al., 2022; South et al., 2020).