TY - JOUR
T1 - Mrna-lncrna co-expression network analysis reveals the role of lncrnas in immune dysfunction during severe sars-cov-2 infection
AU - Mukherjee, Sumit
AU - Banerjee, Bodhisattwa
AU - Karasik, David
AU - Frenkel-Morgenstern, Milana
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/3/1
Y1 - 2021/3/1
N2 - The recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 virus is responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has rapidly developed into a global public health threat. Patients severely affected with COVID-19 present distinct clinical features, including acute respiratory disorder, neutrophilia, cy-tokine storm, and sepsis. In addition, multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines are found in the plasma of such patients. Transcriptome sequencing of different specimens obtained from patients suffering from severe episodes of COVID-19 shows dynamics in terms of their immune responses. However, those host factors required for SARS-CoV-2 propagation and the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for dysfunctional immune responses during COVID-19 infection remain elusive. In the present study, we analyzed the mRNA-long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) co-expression network derived from publicly available SARS-CoV-2-infected transcriptome data of human lung epithelial cell lines and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from COVID-19 patients. Through co-expression network analysis, we identified four differentially expressed lncRNAs strongly correlated with genes involved in various immune-related pathways crucial for cytokine signaling. Our findings suggest that the aberrant expression of these four lncRNAs can be associated with cytokine storms and anti-viral responses during severe SARS-CoV-2 infection of the lungs. Thus, the present study uncovers molecular interactions behind the cytokine storm activation potentially responsible for hyper-inflammatory responses in critical COVID-19 patients.
AB - The recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 virus is responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has rapidly developed into a global public health threat. Patients severely affected with COVID-19 present distinct clinical features, including acute respiratory disorder, neutrophilia, cy-tokine storm, and sepsis. In addition, multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines are found in the plasma of such patients. Transcriptome sequencing of different specimens obtained from patients suffering from severe episodes of COVID-19 shows dynamics in terms of their immune responses. However, those host factors required for SARS-CoV-2 propagation and the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for dysfunctional immune responses during COVID-19 infection remain elusive. In the present study, we analyzed the mRNA-long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) co-expression network derived from publicly available SARS-CoV-2-infected transcriptome data of human lung epithelial cell lines and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from COVID-19 patients. Through co-expression network analysis, we identified four differentially expressed lncRNAs strongly correlated with genes involved in various immune-related pathways crucial for cytokine signaling. Our findings suggest that the aberrant expression of these four lncRNAs can be associated with cytokine storms and anti-viral responses during severe SARS-CoV-2 infection of the lungs. Thus, the present study uncovers molecular interactions behind the cytokine storm activation potentially responsible for hyper-inflammatory responses in critical COVID-19 patients.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Co-expression network
KW - Cytokine storm
KW - LncRNA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103862730&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.3390/v13030402
DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/v13030402
M3 - Article
C2 - 33802569
SN - 1999-4915
VL - 13
JO - Viruses
JF - Viruses
IS - 3
M1 - 402
ER -