The scRNA-seq expression profiling of the receptor ACE2 and the cellular protease TMPRSS2 reveals human organs susceptible to COVID-19 infection

Jing Qi; Yang Zhou; Jiao Hua; Liying Zhang; Jialin Bian; Beibei Liu; Zicen Zhao; Shuilin Jin

The scRNA-seq of substantia nigra and cortex, hippocampus, cerebellum, spinal cord, and neuronal epithelium from the nervous system were collected to infer the susceptibility of the organs. The analysis results show that ACE2 is expressed in the oligodendrocyte precursor cells and astrocytes of the substantia nigra and cortex with a high level, and TMPRSS2 is expressed as well. In details, astrocytes contain 1· 9% ACE2-expressed cells and oligodendrocyte precursor cells contain 1· 6% ACE2-expressed cells (Fig. 3 , Table 4 ). Therefore, the substantia nigra and cortex are predicted as high-risk tissues, and the brain is identified as high-risk organs. For the analysis of other organs, cells from the hippocampus have low expression level of TMPRSS2 and ACE2, and the cerebellum, spinal cord, and neuronal epithelium data show zero expression of TMPRSS2 and ACE2