The team of Zhong Nanshan published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, which showed that the expression of ACE2 gene in the lung tissue of smokers was significantly higher than those without a history of smoking. Reduce the chance of SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus infection causing severe COVID-19 disease. But recently, a group of researchers in Paris, France, published a new study in the "New England Journal of Medicine" that nicotine can protect people from coronavirus infection. The country plans to conduct further tests to test whether the substance can be used to prevent or treat fatal diseases.

The discovery was made by researchers at a top hospital in Paris. They tested 343 patients with coronavirus and 139 people with mild symptoms. They found that the number of people who smoke is very small, while the smoking rate of the general French population is about 35%.

The co-author of the study, Zahir Amoura, professor of internal medicine, said: "Of these patients, only 5 percent are smokers."

The study echoed a similar finding published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month. The finding showed that 12.6% of the 1,000 people infected in China were smokers. According to WHO data, this number is much lower than the number of ordinary smokers in China, accounting for about 26%.

Jean-Pierre Changeux, a well-known neurobiologist at Pasteur Institut in France, is also a co-author of the study and believes that nicotine can adhere to cellular receptors, thus Prevent the virus from entering the cell and spreading in the body.

According to the Guardian, the research team theoretically speculates that nicotine can prevent viruses from infecting cells, or that nicotine can prevent the immune system from overreacting to viruses.