Digestive system is a potential route of COVID-19: an analysis of single-cell coexpression pattern of key proteins in viral entry process

Objective Since December 2019, a newly identified coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)) has caused outbreaks of pneumonia in Wuhan, China. SARS-CoV-2 enters host cells via cell receptor ACE II (ACE2) and the transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2). In order to identify possible prime target cells of SARS-CoV-2 by comprehensive dissection of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 coexpression pattern in different cell types, five datasets with single-cell transcriptomes of lung, oesophagus, gastric mucosa, ileum and colon were analysed. Design Five datasets were searched, separately integrated and analysed. Violin plot was used to show the distribution of differentially expressed genes for…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 31821003, 81702659