Abstract
The epidemic of the novel, pathogenic SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the world pose a global health emergency. Cancer has been identified as a risk factor for the novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The ACE2 and TMPRSS2 have been implicated in SARS-CoV-2 infection for mediating viral entry into the host cell. However, a systematic analysis of aberrant expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 was not yet reported in multiple human cancers. Here, we analyzed gene expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 across 31 types of tumors. Notably, overexpression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 have been observed in colorectal cancer including colon adenocarcinoma (COAD), and rectum adenocarcinoma (READ). In addition, the colorectal tumors with upregulated gene expressing presented with decreased DNA methylation levels. DNA methylation might be one of the reasons for abnormal expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Conclusively, colorectal cancer was the only cancer with the upregulated expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2. More care of colorectal cancer patients is needed in multiple cancers affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Highlights
The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the global health emergency [1]
TMPRSS2 expression was upregulated in seven tumors, including cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC), colon adenocarcinoma (COAD), kidney chromophobe (KICH), prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD), rectum adenocarcinoma (READ), uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) and uterine carcinosarcoma (UCS) (Figure 1B)
There were less than 1% patients with angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) amplification, and no patient had TMPRSS2 amplification in colorectal cancer (Figure 2A)
Summary
The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the global health emergency [1]. To date (October 1, 2020), COVID-19 has resulted in more than 37 million human infections. The angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) has been implicated in SARS-CoV-2 infection for mediating viral entry into the host cell [2]. ACE2 is the main receptor for the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2, mediating viral attachment to target cells. The transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) has been proposed to modulate susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 [3]. TMPRSS2 is a serine protease that cleaves SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, facilitating viral entry and activation. If a cell expresses both ACE2 and TMPRSS2, it has a higher risk of infection by SARSCoV-2 [4]
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