Candidate genes of SARS-CoV-2 gender susceptibility.

ABSTRACT

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) initiated a global viral pandemic since late 2019. Understanding that Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) disproportionately affects men than women results in great challenges. Although there is a growing body of published study on this topic, effective explanations underlying these sex differences and their effects on the infection outcome still remain uncertain. We applied a holistic bioinformatics method to investigate molecular variations of known SARS-CoV-2 interacting human proteins mainly expressed in gonadal tissues (testis and ovary), allowing for the identification of potential genetic targets for this infection. Functional enrichment and interaction network analyses were also performed to better investigate the biological differences between testicular and ovarian responses in the SARS-CoV-2 infection, paying particular attention to genes linked to immune-related pathways, reactions of host cells after intracellular infection, steroid hormone biosynthesis, receptor signaling, and the complement cascade, in order to evaluate their potential association with sexual difference in the likelihood of infection and severity of symptoms. The analysis revealed that within the testis network TMPRSS2, ADAM10, SERPING1, and CCR5 were present, while within the ovary network we found BST2, GATA1, ENPEP, TLR4, TLR7, IRF1, and IRF2. Our findings could provide potential targets for forthcoming experimental investigation related to SARS-CoV-2 treatment.