The RAAS system is the target of widely used anti-hypertensive drugs, such as ACE-inhibitors (ACEI) and Ang-II type 1 receptor blockers (ARB). Several experimental studies reported that, although not directly affecting ACE2 activity, these drugs are able to upregulate its expression (Ishiyama et al., 2004; Ferrario et al., 2005; Gallagher et al., 2008). Increased expression of ACE2 has also been reported to facilitate SARS-CoV infection in several experimental models and postulated to act in the same way for SARS-CoV-2 (Li et al., 2003; Hofmann et al., 2004; Perrotta et al., 2020).