Single-cell RNA-seq data analysis on the receptor ACE2 expression reveals the potential risk of different human organs vulnerable to 2019-nCoV infection

By Xin Zou, Ke Chen, Jiawei Zou, Pei-jun Han, Jie Hao, Ze-Guang Han. Frontiers in Medicine, 2020

2,103 citations recorded by the source corpus.

It has been known that, the novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, which is considered similar to SARS-CoV, invades human cells via the receptor angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2). Moreover, lung cells that have ACE2 expression may be the main target cells during 2019-nCoV infection. However, some patients also exhibit non-respiratory symptoms, such as kidney failure, implying that 2019-nCoV could also invade other organs. To construct a risk map of different human organs, we analyzed the single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets derived from major human physiological systems, including the respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, and urinary systems. Through scRNA-seq data analyses, we identified the organs at risk, such as lung, heart, esophagus, kidney, bladder, and ileum, and located specific cell types (i.e., type II alveolar cells (AT2), myocardial cells, proximal tubule cells of the kidney, ileum and esophagus epithelial cells, and bladder urothelial cells), which are vulnerable to 2019-nCoV infection. Based on the findings, we constructed a risk map indicating the vulnerability of different organs to 2019-nCoV infection. This study may provide potential clues for further investigation of the pathogenesis and route of 2019-nCoV infection.

Subfields: Cancer Research, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/630ff026b4f194b3e81166493dc330ea2d6ae419

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Citations in the corpus

COVID-19 and the human innate immune system (2021, background): “In the lung, ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression has been mainly identified in alveolar epithelial type II cells (Qi et al., 2020; Zou et al., 2020).”
The Role of Imaging in the Detection and Management of COVID-19: A Review (2020, background): “At the RNA level, Zou et al. [58] identiﬁed other organs at risk like the esophagus, kidney, bladder, and ileum that are vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.”
COVID-19, ACE2, and the cardiovascular consequences (2020, background): “23) as a coreceptor to gain intracellular entry into the lungs and brain (17, 30, 52, 53, 62).”
Virology, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, and Control of COVID-19 (2020, background): “ACE2 is broadly expressed in nasal mucosa, bronchus, lung, heart, esophagus, kidney, stomach, bladder, and ileum, and these human organs are all vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 [40].”
COVID-19 pathophysiology: A review (2020, neutral): “ACE2 expression was high in lung, heart, ileum, kidney and bladder [34].”
Immune Response, Inflammation, and the Clinical Spectrum of COVID-19 (2020, background): “As described above, the main receptor for SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 on the membrane of the target cells is the Angiotensin 2 Converting Enzyme (ACE2), a metallopeptidase present on the membrane of many cells, including type-I and -II pneumocytes, small intestine enterocytes, kidney proximal tubules ce”
Pathophysiology, Transmission, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Review. (2020, background): “quartile range) interval from symptom onset to hospital admission is 7 (3-9) days.”
Role of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in COVID-19 (2020, methodology): “ACE2 is highly expressed in the kidney, especially in the apical membranes of proximal tubular epithelial cells, suggesting that the kidney is another target of SARSCoV-2 [22, 23, 75].”
Single cell RNA sequencing of 13 human tissues identify cell types and receptors of human coronaviruses (2020, neutral): “Since the outbreak, many data analysis have showed a wide distribution of ACE2 across human tissues, including lung[5], liver[6], stomach[7], ileum[7], colon[7] and kidney[8], indicating”
COVID-19: angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expression and tissue susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection (2021, background): “[22] linked the ACE2 expression in different organs to their potential risk to SARS-CoV-2 infection.”