Abstract
There is increasing evidence of gastrointestinal (GI) infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We surveyed the co-expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes ACE2 and TMPRSS2 throughout the GI tract to assess potential sites of infection. Publicly available and in-house single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets from the GI tract were queried. Enterocytes from the small intestine and colonocytes showed the highest proportions of cells co-expressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Therefore, the lower GI tract represents the most likely site of SARS-CoV-2 entry leading to GI infection.
Keywords:
COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; gastrointestinal tract; scRNA-seq.
Publication types
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Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2
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Base Sequence
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Betacoronavirus / metabolism*
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COVID-19
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Cells, Cultured
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Coronavirus Infections / pathology
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Enterocytes / metabolism*
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Enterocytes / virology
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Gastrointestinal Diseases / virology
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Humans
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Lower Gastrointestinal Tract / metabolism*
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Lower Gastrointestinal Tract / virology
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Membrane Proteins / genetics
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Membrane Proteins / metabolism
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Pandemics
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Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / genetics*
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Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / metabolism
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Pneumonia, Viral / pathology
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SARS-CoV-2
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Sequence Analysis
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Serine Endopeptidases / genetics*
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Serine Endopeptidases / metabolism
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Virus Internalization
Substances
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Membrane Proteins
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Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A
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ACE2 protein, human
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Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2
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Serine Endopeptidases
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TMPRSS2 protein, human
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TMPRSS4 protein, human