Non-neural expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in the olfactory epithelium suggests mechanisms underlying anosmia in COVID-19 patients

David Brann; Tatsuya Tsukahara; Caleb Weinreb; Darren W. Logan; Sandeep Robert Datta

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.25.009084 doi: bioRxiv preprint with parameters (n_neighbors=20, min_dist=0.5). Clustering was performed using the Leiden algorithm (resolution=1.45) and clusters were merged manually using known marker genes. Expression of candidate CoV-2-related genes was defined if at least one transcript (UMI) was detected in that cell, and the percent of cells expressing candidate genes was calculated for each cell type. In the WOM dataset Ace2 was only detected in 2 out of 28,769 mature OSNs (0.007 %), and in the HBC lineage dataset, Ace2 was not detected in any OSNs. Furthermore, Ace2 was not detected in immature sensory neurons (GBCs, INPs, or iOSNs) in either dataset.