COVID‐19 is an ongoing pandemic caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2 coronavirus that poses one of the greatest challenges to public health in recent years. SARS‐CoV‐2 is known to preferentially target older subjects and those with pre‐existing conditions, but the reason for this age dependence is unclear. Here, we found that the case fatality rate for COVID‐19 grows exponentially with age in all countries tested, with the doubling time approaching that of all‐cause human mortality. In addition, men and those with multiple age‐related diseases are characterized by increased mortality. Moreover, similar mortality patterns were found for all‐cause pneumonia. We further report that the gene expression of ACE2, the SARS‐CoV‐2 receptor, grows in the lung with age, except for subjects on a ventilator. Together, our findings establish COVID‐19 as an emergent disease of aging, and age and age‐related diseases as its major risk factors. In turn, this suggests that COVID‐19, and deadly respiratory diseases in general, may be targeted, in addition to antiviral approaches, by approaches that target the aging process.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 是一种新兴的衰老疾病

COVID-19 是由 SARS-CoV-2 冠状病毒引起的持续大流行，是近年来对公共卫生构成的最大挑战之一。众所周知，SARS-CoV-2 优先针对年龄较大的受试者和已有疾病的受试者，但这种年龄依赖性的原因尚不清楚。在这里，我们发现在所有接受测试的国家中，COVID-19 的病死率随着年龄的增长呈指数增长，倍增时间接近全因人类死亡率。此外，男性和患有多种与年龄相关的疾病的人的特点是死亡率增加。此外，全因肺炎也发现了类似的死亡率模式。我们进一步报告说，SARS-CoV-2 受体 ACE2 的基因表达在肺中随着年龄的增长而增长，但使用呼吸机的受试者除外。一起，我们的研究结果将 COVID-19 确定为一种新发的衰老疾病，年龄和与年龄相关的疾病是其主要危险因素。反过来，这表明，除了抗病毒方法外，还可以通过针对衰老过程的方法来针对 COVID-19 和一般致命的呼吸道疾病。