Single-cell RNA Analysis on ACE2 Expression Provides Insight into SARS-CoV-2 Blood Entry and Heart Injury

Jieyu Guo; Xiangxiang Wei; Qinhan Li; Liliang Li; Zhaohua Yang; Yu Shi; Yue Qin; Xinyue Zhang; Xinhong Wang; Xiuling Zhi; Dan Meng

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.31.20047621 doi: medRxiv preprint Given that hospital-related transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was suspected in 41% of patients 12 , we speculated that patients simultaneously infected by other viruses may be more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We then determined whether other viral infection might affect the expression of ACE2. We analyzed ACE2 expression in cells infected by various viruses, using published RNA-Seq data (GSE140226 and GSE139516) 15 . As expected, ACE2 expression was significantly up-regulated when lung carcinoma cells were infected with the respiratory syncytial virus and MERS-CoV ( Fig. 4A-4B) . Moreover, Ace2 expression in pulmonary endothelial cells of mice was up-regulated 72 hours after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection 16 (Fig. 4C) . Together, these results indicate that patients with a virus infection or inflammation might be more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection.