Abstract
The new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is an emerging pathogen that can cause severe respiratory infections in humans. It is worth noting that many of the affected COVID-19 patients have malignant tumors. In addition, cancer has been identified as a personal risk factor for COVID-19. Transmembrane proteaseserine-2 (TMPRSS2) is a crucial host protease that mediates S protein activation and initially promotes virus entry into host cells. Moreover, it is abnormally expressed in a variety of tumors. However, the systematic analysis of TMPRSS2 aberrations in human cancer remains to be elucidated. Here, we analyzed the genetic changes, RNA expression, and DNA methylation of TMPRSS2 in more than 30 tumors. It has been reported that TMPRSS2 is overexpressed in tumors such as prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD), and in contrast, the expression of TMPRSS2 is decreased in tumors such as head and neck cancer (HNSC). In addition, TMPRSS2 low DNA methylation was also found in most of these TMPRSS2 high-expressing tumors in this study. Clinical studies have found that there is a significant correlation between the expression of TMPRSS2 and the prognosis of some tumor patients. The expression of TMPRSS2 is also related to the infiltration of cancer-related fibroblasts, and the potential pathways and functional mechanisms were analyzed through KEGG/GO enrichment. In the end, our study planned the genetic and epigenetic variation of TMPRSS2 in human malignant tumors for the first time and provided a relatively comprehensive understanding of the carcinogenic effects of TMPRSS2.
Highlights
The pandemic respiratory disease sweeping through 2020 and 2021 is a new type of coronavirus pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Surkova et al, 2020)
To study the relationship between Transmembrane proteaseserine-2 (TMPRSS2) copy number changes in different cancers and gene expression, we looked for genes that were coexpressed with TMPRSS2 and presented them in the form of a scatter plot sequentially
TMPRSS2 may be the key to SARS-CoV-2 replication, and its expression greatly promotes the replication of the virus and the formation of syncytial virus–infected cells (Buchrieser et al, 2021; Kruger et al, 2021)
Summary
The pandemic respiratory disease sweeping through 2020 and 2021 is a new type of coronavirus pneumonia (coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Surkova et al, 2020). Current studies have proven that the invasion of SARS-CoV-2 into host cells mainly depends on the activation of viral spike protein (S protein) by certain proteases (Ward et al, 2020). Transmembrane proteaseserine-2 (TMPRSS2) is a key host protease that mediates S protein activation and. Initially promotes virus entry into host cells (Hoffmann et al, 2020). It is abnormally expressed in a variety of tumors. Due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic, coupled with the expression of TMPRSS2 in the epithelial cells of the respiratory system, enthusiasm for research on TMPRSS2 has further increased (Kimura et al, 2020). We planned a pan-cancer analysis of TMPRSS2 in malignant tumors
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
