SARS-CoV-2 Receptor ACE2 and TMPRSS2 Are Primarily Expressed in Bronchial Transient Secretory Cells

Overview

Journal EMBO J

Specialties Biotechnology
Molecular Biology

Date 2020 Apr 5

PMID 32246845

Citations 676

Authors

Soeren Lukassen

Robert Lorenz Chua

Timo Trefzer

Nicolas C Kahn

Marc A Schneider

Thomas Muley

Hauke Winter

Michael Meister

Carmen Veith

Agnes W Boots

Bianca P Hennig

Michael Kreuter

Christian Conrad

Roland Eils

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affecting the human respiratory system severely challenges public health and urgently demands for increasing our understanding of COVID-19 pathogenesis, especially host factors facilitating virus infection and replication. SARS-CoV-2 was reported to enter cells via binding to ACE2, followed by its priming by TMPRSS2. Here, we investigate ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression levels and their distribution across cell types in lung tissue (twelve donors, 39,778 cells) and in cells derived from subsegmental bronchial branches (four donors, 17,521 cells) by single nuclei and single cell RNA sequencing, respectively. While TMPRSS2 is strongly expressed in both tissues, in the subsegmental bronchial branches ACE2 is predominantly expressed in a transient secretory cell type. Interestingly, these transiently differentiating cells show an enrichment for pathways related to RHO GTPase function and viral processes suggesting increased vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our data provide a rich resource for future investigations of COVID-19 infection and pathogenesis.

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