Abstract
Novel coronary pneumonia (COVID-19) is a respiratory distress syndrome caused by a new type of coronavirus. Understanding the genetic basis of susceptibility and prognosis to COVID-19 is of great significance to disease prevention, molecular typing, prognosis, and treatment. However, so far, there have been only two genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on the susceptibility of COVID-19. Starting with these reported DNA variants, we found the genes regulated by these variants through cis-eQTL and cis-meQTL acting. We further did a series of bioinformatics analysis on these potential risk genes. The analysis shows that the genetic variants on EHF regulate the expression of its neighbor CAT gene via cis-eQTL. There was significant evidence that CAT and the SARS-CoV-2-related S protein binding protein ACE2 interact with each other. Intracellular localization results showed that CAT and ACE2 proteins both exists in the cell membrane and extracellular area and their interaction could have an impact on the cell invasion ability of S protein. In addition, the expression of these three genes showed a significant positive correlation in the lungs. Based on these results, we propose that CAT plays a crucial intermediary role in binding effectiveness of ACE2, thereby affecting the susceptibility to COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; bioinformatics; candidate gene; eQTL; protein interaction.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, eQTL, bioinformatics, protein interaction, candidate gene, 【초록키워드】 Treatment, Respiratory distress syndrome, ACE2, coronavirus, Prognosis, S protein, susceptibility, Genetic, eQTL, bioinformatics, variant, Protein, Lungs, Effectiveness, Genome-wide association study, understanding, genetic variants, Genetic variant, molecular, novel, disease, Bioinformatics analysis, expression, Protein binding, binding, Evidence, Interaction, Analysis, regulate, distress, ACE2 protein, candidate gene, Invasion, respiratory distress, positive correlation, potential risk, syndrome, GWASs, coronary pneumonia, Intracellular, cell membrane, starting, Genes, Cell, Extracellular, DNA variants, caused, reported, addition, regulated, affecting, acting, EHF, 【제목키워드】 susceptibility, involved,