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

In conclusion, our results systematicly investigated the expression profiles of FURIN enzyme and ACE2 receptor in oral cavity at the gene and protein level for the first time. Furthermore, significant expression of FURIN and ACE2 were discovered in oral epithelial cells, implying the possible two transmission routes of the coronavirus through oral mucosa, which provides a new insight to the future prevention strategy in clinical cares as well as daily life. More evidence is still needed to reinforce these findings. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the .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 Immunohistological staining against ACE2 was used to determine whether ACE2 express in the normal buccal, lip, palate, tongue, and gingival tissues from the human. The lower panels demonstrate the appearance of basal layer and epithelial cells at higher magnification as indicated by black squares in upper panels. ACE2 was highly expressed in basal layer epithelial cells of these five oral tissues. Scale bars = 50 μ m.