Transcriptomic analysis reveals novel mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human lung cells.

The present study demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces the upregulation of 14 interferon-stimulated genes, indicative of immune, and interferon responses to the virus. Notably, genes for pyrimidine metabolism and steroid hormone biosynthesis are selectively enriched in human lung cells after SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting that altered pyrimidine metabolism and steroid biosynthesis are remarkable, and perhaps druggable features after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Besides, there is a strong positive correlation between viral ORF1ab, ORF6, and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expression in human lung cells, implying that ACE2 facilitates SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication in host cells probably through the induction of ORF1ab and ORF6.