Proteo-genomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2: A clinical landscape of SNPs, COVID-19 proteome and host responses

Tushir, S.; Kamanna, S.; Nath, S. S.; Bhat, A.; Rose, S.; Aithal, A. R.; Tatu, U.

A novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of COVID-19 and continues to be a global health challenge. To understand viral disease biology, we have carried out proteo-genomic analysis using next generation sequencing (NGS) and mass-spectrometry on nasopharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients to examine clinical genome and proteome. Our study confirms the hyper mutability of SARS-CoV-2 showing multiple SNPs. NGS analysis detected 27 mutations of which 14 are synonymous, 11 are missense and 2 are extragenic in nature. Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 isolates indicated their close relation to Bangladesh isolate and multiple origins of isolates within a country. Our proteomic analysis, for the first time identified 13 different SARS-CoV-2 proteins from the clinical swabs. Of the total 41 peptides captured by HRMS, 8 matched to nucleocapsid protein, 2 to ORF9b, 1 to spike glycoprotein and ORF3a, with remaining mapping to ORF1ab polyprotein. Additionally, host proteome analysis revealed several key host proteins to be uniquely expressed in COVID-19 patients. Pathway analysis of these proteins points towards modulation in immune response, especially involving neutrophil and IL-12 mediated signaling. Besides revealing the aspects of host-virus pathogenesis, our study opens new avenues to develop better diagnostic markers and therapeutics.