Potential interactions of SARS-CoV-2 with human cell receptors in the skin: understanding the enigma for a lower frequency of skin lesions compared to other tissues

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) represents a new public health problem, with a total of 10.577.263 documented COVID-19 cases worldwide and 513.441 deaths up to the present date. Few cases of disease-related cutaneous manifestations have been reported in the literature and such manifestations are scarce. Integumentary manifestations from COVID-19 include exanthemas and papular dermatoses, urticarial eruptions, atopic dermatitis, vesiculobullous lesions and skin signs of hypercoagulable states, such as acral ischemia, livedo and retiforme purpura. Most common extra cutaneous manifestations from the disease include headache, cough, anosmia, ageusia, fever, dyspnea, nausea, diarrhea and cardiovascular events. The objectives of this review are to discuss the role of human cell receptors described as interaction targets of SARS-CoV-2, as well to understand the current state of knowledge on skin expression of these receptors, in order to substantiate future research. The authors present a thorough literature review on SARS-CoV-2 and its possible interaction with cell receptors and human tissues including the skin. They discuss a molecular hypothesis to explain the lower prevalence of dermatological manifestations from direct SARS-CoV-2 infection. Distinct human cell receptors binding the virus appear to be less expressed in the skin compared to other organs. Additionally, the presence of resolvins and the desintegrin metalloprotease ADAM17 provide a putative protection to the skin, explaining the majority of COVID-19 manifestations to be extra cutaneous. This review represents an excellent opportunity for future studies using skin biopsies from COVID-19 patients to investigate molecular expression in the pathophysiology of cutaneous manifestations of the disease.

Keywords: COVID-19; acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; cutaneous; manifestations; molecular; skin.