Indore: Being male is also a factor for coronavirus infection. Shocked? You certainly may have been. This surprising gender gap in Covid-19 infection cases has come to the fore in a study conducted by Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya scientists. According to the study, females are lesser prone to Covid-19 than males. Besides, mortality rate in females due to Covid-19 is three times lesser? ?than ?that of males.
This variation in the risk of coronavirus infections/deaths has been attributed to the different hormones found in women and men according to their gender. The findings of the research team from School of Biotechnology at DAVV has been published in the well-known American journal Current Cancer Drug Targets. The journal publishes worldwide research and reviews related to medical chemistry, pharmacology, genomics, proprietary biology and especially cancer.Dr Hamendra Singh, head of the research team, along with IIT Indore faculty member Hem Chandra Jha, researchers Aakruti Nayak, Shivani Bhagwat and Rajesh Sharma reviewed more than 250 research studies worldwide before reaching the above-mentioned conclusion.
Parmar's lab has been doing research on cancer and other subjects for the past many years. According to Dr Parmar, Global Health 50/50, which works against gender discrimination in the health sector and collects statistics, has released coronavirus figures from 50 countries till November last year. A closer look at data revealed ?that ?the number of men contracting Covid-19 was far more than women. Not only this, in the case of death too, the number of men is almost three times more than women.
Amid Covid-19 pandemic, much emphasis was initially placed on the elderly or those who have comorbidities such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes and cancers as being at high risk of contracting and/or dying of Covid-19.“A comparison and study of data from 250 major research studies worldwide showed that oestrogen found in women and testosterone in men are playing different roles in the effects of coronavirus infection. The female hormone oestrogen is reducing the risk of coronavirus infection and its severity,” Parmar said. He said that coronavirus enters any human body through ACE-2 receptor. Oestrogen reduces the number of ACE-2 receptors in the body. “While the male hormone increases this receptor in the body. Decreased ACE-2 receptor reduces the risk of coronavirus infection. Also, soluble ACE-2 receptors are produced in the body by oestrogen. Female hormones also give more anti-inflammatory capacity to the body. That is why immunity is also said to be better than women's ability to bear pain. This female hormone is reducing the risk and severity of coronavirus in women. On the other hand in men, their hormone increases testosterone,” he explained.
