Genetic variants that influence SARS-CoV-2 receptor TMPRSS2 expression among population cohorts from multiple continents.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
; 529(2): 263-269, 2020 08 20.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-617705
ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization recently announced that pandemic status has been achieved for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Exponential increases in patient numbers have been reported around the world, along with proportional increases in the number of COVID-19-related deaths. The SARS-CoV-2 infection rate in a population is expected to be influenced by social practices, availability of vaccines or prophylactics, and the prevalence of susceptibility genes in the population. Previous work revealed that cellular uptake of SARS-CoV-2 requires Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE-2) and a cellular protease. The spike (S) protein on SARS-CoV-2 binds ACE-2, which functions as an entry receptor. Following receptor binding, transmembrane protease serine 2 (encoded by TMPRSS2) primes the S protein to allow cellular uptake. Therefore, individual expression of TMPRSS2 may be a crucial determinant of SARS-CoV-2 infection susceptibility. Here, we utilized multiple large genome databases, including the GTEx portal, SNP nexus, and Ensembl genome project, to identify gene expression profiles for TMPRSS2 and its important expression quantitative trait loci. Our results show that four variants (rs464397, rs469390, rs2070788 and rs383510) affect expression of TMPRSS2 in lung tissue. The allele frequency of each variant was then assessed in regional populations, including African, American, European, and three Asian cohorts (China, Japan and Taiwan). Interestingly, our data shows that TMPRSS2-upregulating variants are at higher frequencies in European and American populations than in the Asian populations, which implies that these populations might be relatively susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Receptors, Virus
/
Serine Endopeptidases
/
Gene Expression Regulation
/
Internationality
/
Betacoronavirus
/
Lung
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
/
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
/
Asia
/
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.bbrc.2020.05.179
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS