A Parsimonious Identification of SARS-CoV-2 and Host Interactions

Abstract

Effective countermeasures against the SARS-CoV-2 demand a better understanding of the pathogen-host interactions. However, such information about the targets, responses, and effects in the host due to the virus is limited. The peptide domains forming the interfaces of host-pathogen interactions being evolutionarily conserved, it was hypothesized that such interactions can be inferred from similarities in their nucleotide sequences. The results of a study based on a parsimonious approach for the identification of the host-virus interactions are reported. Sequence complementarity between host and SARS-Cov-2 genomes was used to predict several interactions between the host and SARS-CoV-2 at different levels of biological organization. In particular, the findings are suggestive of a direct effect of SARS-CoV-2 on cardiac health. The existing literature on host responses to SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses attested many of the predicted interactions, supporting the utility of the approach in the identification of host interactions with other novel pathogens.