Significant expression of FURIN and ACE2 on oral epithelial cells may facilitate the efficiency of 2019-nCov entry

Bing-peng Lin; Mei Zhong; Hong-bin Gao; Kai-bin Wu; Ming-xiao Liu; Chang Liu; Xin-hong Wang; Jian-ming Chen; Learn-han Lee; Cui-ling Qi; Lin-hu Ge; Li-jing Wang

In addition, virologist Gary Whittaker of Cornell University, whose team published another structural analysis of the coronavirus S protein on bioRxiv on February 18th, argues that the FURIN cutting site allows the virus to enter cells in a very different way than SARS, and this may affect the stability and spread of the virus [26] . Other research teams have also identified this activation site, suggesting that it may enable the virus to spread effectively between humans [13] . It has been demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 could fuse with cell membrane and then entry into the target cells [ 27 , 28 ] . Researchers have found FURIN proteases in many tissues, including the lungs, liver, and small intestine [29] . However, limited reports were seen Previous analysis about the SARS-CoV-2 receptor in the sing cell level were based on the complete OSCC database named GS103322, which was significantly different from the genetic profiles of normal oral tissues [30] . In order to accurately analyzing the expression status of FURIN in the gene level, datasets from five OSCC patients, which were graded as 1 and T1N0 stage were selected originated from the online platform in the present research. The obtained single cell RNA-seq data were processed and analyzed with R software. As expected, FURIN were found abundantly enriched in oral mucosa cells, particularly in epithelial cells and the proportion of FURIN-positive cells was higher than that of ACE2-positive cells.