Journal
VIRUSES-BASEL
Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/v13030402
Keywords
lncRNA; co-expression network; COVID-19; cytokine storm
Categories
Funding
- Israeli Council for Higher Education through the PBC fellowship program for outstanding postdoctoral researchers from China
- Israeli Council for Higher Education through the PBC fellowship program for outstanding postdoctoral researchers from India
- Israel Innovation Authority (Kamin grant) [66824]
- COVID-19 Data Science Institute (DSI) grant, Bar-Ilan University [247017]
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The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic presents distinct clinical features in severely affected patients, with multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines found in their plasma. A study identified four differentially expressed lncRNAs strongly correlated with immune-related pathways crucial for cytokine signaling during severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, potentially contributing to hyper-inflammatory responses.
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, cytokine 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.
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