Open AccessACE2 Shedding and Furin Abundance in Target Organs may Influence the Efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 Entry
Author(s) -
Yuanchen Ma,
Yig Huang,
Tao Wang,
Andy Peng Xiang,
Weijun Huang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the open bioinformatics journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.259
H-Index - 8
ISSN - 1875-0362
DOI - 10.2174/1875036202114010001
Subject(s) - furin , virus , infectivity , coronavirus , virology , viral shedding , biology , viral entry , lipid bilayer fusion , viral replication , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , covid-19 , enzyme , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biochemistry
Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a lineage B coronavirus, causing the worldwide outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Despite genetically closed to SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 seems to possess enhanced infectivity and subtle different clinical features, which may hamper the early screening of suspected patients as well as the control of virus transmission. Unfortunately, there are few tools to predict the potential target organ damage and possible clinical manifestations caused by such novel coronavirus. Methods: To solve this problem, we use the online single-cell sequence datasets to analyze the expression of the major receptor in host cells that mediates the virus entry, including angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and its co-expressed membrane endopeptidases. Results: The results indicated the differential expression of ADAM10 and ADAM17 might contribute to the ACE2 shedding and affect the membrane ACE2 abundance. We further confirm a putative furin-cleavage site reported recently in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which may facilitate the virus-cell fusion. Based on these findings, we develop an approach that comprehensively analyzed the virus receptor expression, ACE2 shedding, membrane fusion activity, virus uptake and virus replication to evaluate the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 to different human organs. Conclusion: Our results indicate that, in addition to airway epithelia, cardiac tissue and enteric canals are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 as well.