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

Strikingly, the scRNA-Seq data analysis and IHC tests results indicated that ACE2 and FURIN were both abundantly expressed in oral mucosa, especially on oral epithelial cells, which were similar to the previous reports [32, 33, 34] . In other word, two key proteins of SARS-CoV-2 entering the target cell in different routes were both present in oral mucosa, which implied the potential attack and spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the oral tissues. Moreover, the live SARS-CoV-2 was consistently detected in the self-collected saliva of 91.7% of patients till 11 days after hospitalization, and it could . CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.18.047951 doi: bioRxiv preprint be transmitted via saliva, directly or indirectly, even among asymptomatic infected patients [35] . Thus, it is suggested that all the healthcare workers should focus on taking effective measures to prevent the virus from spreading via the oral cavity and potential impairment of oral tissues should be evaluated after infected with SARS-CoV-2, giving more evidence to the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. We should also pay close attention to protecting the oral tissues of all people, preventing the virus from spreading through the mouth.