Cardiorenal tissues express SARS-CoV-2 entry genes and basigin (BSG/CD147) increases with age in endothelial cells

Ahmetaj-Shala, Blerina; Vaja, Ricky; Atanur, Santosh S.; George, Peter M.; Kirkby, Nicholas S.; Mitchell, Jane A.

Vascular/cardiovascular inflammation and thrombosis occur in severe COVID-19. Advancing age is the most significant risk factor for severe COVID-19. Using transcriptomic databases, we found: (i) cardiovascular tissues/endothelial cells express putative genes for SARS-CoV-2 infection including ACE2 and BSG, (ii) SARS-CoV-2 receptor pathways, ACE2TMPRSS2 and BSG/PPIB(A) polarise to lung/epithelium and vessel/endothelium respectively, (iii) expression of host genes are relatively stable with age and (iv) notable exceptions are ACE2 which decreases with age in some tissues and BSG which increases with age in endothelial cells, suggesting that BSG expression in the vasculature may explain the heightened risk of severe disease with age.