Enrichment of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors and interacting intracellular genes in peripheral immune cells

Devaprasad, Abhinandan; Pandit, Aridaman

SARS-CoV-2 uses ACE2 and TMPRSS2 to gain entry into the cell. However, recent studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 may use additional host factors that are required for the viral lifecycle. Here we used publicly available datasets, CoV associated genes and machine learning algorithms to explore the SARS-CoV-2 interaction landscape in different tissues. We find that in general a small fraction of cells expresses ACE2 in the different tissues including nasal, bronchi and lungs. We show that a small fraction of immune cells (including T-cells, macrophages, dendritic cells) found in tissues also express ACE2. We show that healthy circulating immune cells do not express ACE2 and TMPRSS2. However, a small fraction of circulating immune cells (including dendritic cells, monocytes, T-cells) in the PBMC of COVID-19 patients express ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Additionally, we found that a large spectrum of cells (in circulation and periphery) in both healthy and COVID-19 positive patients were significantly enriched for SARS-CoV-2 factors. Thus, we propose that further research is needed to explore if SARS-CoV-2 can directly infect peripheral immune cells to better understand the virus’ mechanism of action.