Cited by 2,284SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 ResearchCOVID-19 Clinical Research Studiesinterferon and immune responses

SARS-CoV-2 Receptor ACE2 Is an Interferon-Stimulated Gene in Human Airway Epithelial Cells and Is Detected in Specific Cell Subsets across Tissues

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Ziegler, Carly G.K., Allon, Samuel J., Nyquist, Sarah K., Mbano, Ian M., Miao, Vincent N., Tzouanas, Constantine N., Cao, Yuming, Yousif, Ashraf S. +113 more·2020·Cell

Abstract

There is pressing urgency to understand the pathogenesis of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus clade 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the disease COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein binds angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and in concert with host proteases, principally transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2), promotes cellular entry. The cell subsets targeted by SARS-CoV-2 in host tissues and the factors that regulate ACE2 expression remain unknown. Here, we leverage human, non-human primate, and mouse single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets across health and disease to uncover putative targets of SARS-CoV-2 among tissue-resident cell subsets. We identify ACE2 and TMPRSS2 co-expressing cells within lung type II pneumocytes, ileal absorptive enterocytes, and nasal goblet secretory cells. Strikingly, we discovered that ACE2 is a human interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) in vitro using airway epithelial cells and extend our findings to in vivo viral infections. Our data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 could exploit species-specific interferon-driven upregulation of ACE2, a tissue-protective mediator during lung injury, to enhance infection.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.035

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  • Co-expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in nasal goblet secretory cells, lung type II pneumocytes, and ileal absorptive enterocytes is conserved in non-human primates and mice.

    “A second study from the HCA Lung Biological Network extended the initial findings to tissues from non-human primates and mice, indicating co-expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 within nasal goblet secretory cells, lung type II pneumocytes, and ileal absorptive enterocytes (Ziegler et al., 2020).”

    From COVID-19 and the human innate immune system (2021) · cites this paper as Ziegler et al., 2020

  • Inflammation can induce expression of ACE2 in human cells.

    “Finally, it has recently been reported that inflammation can induce expression of ACE2 in human cells (87, 88). It is therefore possible that our survey of ACE2 expression, and other recent reports demonstrating expression of ACE2 in OE support and stem cells but not neurons (81, 89, 90), might under-represent the cell types that express ACE2 under conditions of CoV-2 infection.”

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Authors
Ziegler, C. G. K., Allon, S. J., Nyquist, S. K., Mbano, I. M., Miao, V. N., Tzouanas, C. N., Cao, Y., Yousif, A. S., Bals, J., Hauser, B. M., Feldman, J., Muus, C., Wadsworth, M. H., Kazer, S. W., Hughes, T. K., Doran, B., Gatter, G. J., Vukovic, M., Taliaferro, F., Mead, B. E., Guo, Z., Wang, J. P., Gras, D., Plaisant, M., Ansari, M., Angelidis, I., Adler, H., Sucre, J. M. S., Taylor, C. J., Lin, B., Waghray, A., Mitsialis, V., Dwyer, D. F., Buchheit, K. M., Boyce, J. A., Barrett, N. A., Laidlaw, T. M., Carroll, S. L., Colonna, L., Tkachev, V., Peterson, C. W., Yu, A., Zheng, H. B., Gideon, H. P., Winchell, C. G., Lin, P. L., Bingle, C. D., Snapper, S. B., Kropski, J. A., Theis, F. J., Schiller, H. B., Zaragosi, L.-E., Barbry, P., Leslie, A., Kiem, H.-P., Flynn, J. L., Fortune, S. M., Berger, B., Finberg, R. W., Kean, L. S., Garber, M., Schmidt, A. G., Lingwood, D., Shalek, A. K., Ordovas-Montanes, J., Banovich, N., Barbry, P., Brazma, A., Desai, T., Duong, T. E., Eickelberg, O., Falk, C., Farzan, M., Glass, I., Haniffa, M., Horvath, P., Hung, D., Kaminski, N., Krasnow, M., Kropski, J. A., Kuhnemund, M., Lafyatis, R., Lee, H., Leroy, S., Linnarson, S., Lundeberg, J., Meyer, K., Misharin, A., Nawijn, M., Nikolic, M. Z., Ordovas-Montanes, J., Pe’er, D., Powell, J., Quake, S., Rajagopal, J., Tata, P. R., Rawlins, E. L., Regev, A., Reyfman, P. A., Rojas, M., Rosen, O., Saeb-Parsy, K., Samakovlis, C., Schiller, H., Schultze, J. L., Seibold, M. A., Shalek, A. K., Shepherd, D., Spence, J., Spira, A., Sun, X., Teichmann, S., Theis, F., Tsankov, A., van den Berge, M., von Papen, M., Whitsett, J., Xavier, R., Xu, Y., Zaragosi, L.-E., & Zhang, K.
Affiliations
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • Africa Health Research Institute (ZA)
  • University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (US)
  • Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard (US)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Inserm (FR)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Helmholtz Munich (DE)
  • Vanderbilt University Medical Center (US)
  • Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • University of California, Berkeley (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • Boston Children's Hospital (US)
  • Seattle Children's Hospital (US)
  • University of Pittsburgh (US)
  • University of Sheffield (GB)
  • MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (US)
Venue
Cell
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-05
Volume
181
Issue
5
Pages
1016-1035.e19
ISSN
0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3011134208
Cited by
2,284
References
159
Citations by year
2026: 50 · 2025: 93 · 2024: 172 · 2023: 233 · 2022: 425 · 2021: 730 · 2020: 578 · 2019: 3
FWCI
64.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
  • Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship@UMassChan (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Site cant be reached (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PuSH - Publication Server of Helmholtz Zentrum München (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo
Funders
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (UM1 AI126623)
  • Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (DEQ20180339158)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U19 HL129902, DHHS/NIH 1UM1AI126617, U19 AI117945, R01 HL095791 NIH/NIAID R33-AI116184)
  • Hertz Foundation (T32GM007753)
  • Searle Scholars Program
  • Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences
  • Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A.
  • GlaxoSmithKline (DP2DA042422, 1R01HL128241-01, K23AI139352, R01AI124378, R01AI137057)
  • Agence Nationale de la Recherche (U19 AI051731, ANR-19-CE14-0027)
  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (R56 AI139053)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • National Science Foundation (1122374)
  • Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (DRG-2274-16)
  • National Institutes of Health (5U24AI118672)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › interferon and immune responses
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2, ACE2, interferon-stimulated genes, interferon signaling, airway epithelial cells, TMPRSS2, viral entry, enterocytes, single-cell transcriptomics, COVID-19 pathogenesis, viral tropism
MeSH terms
Betacoronavirus, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adolescent, Animals, Cell Line, Cells, Cultured, Child, Humans, Influenza, Human, Interferon Type I, Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A, Lung, Macaca mulatta, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Nasal Mucosa, Pneumonia, Viral, Receptors, Virus, Serine Endopeptidases, Tuberculosis, HIV Infections, Up-Regulation, Coronavirus Infections, Goblet Cells, Enterocytes, Mice, Alveolar Epithelial Cells, Pandemics, Single-Cell Analysis

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