SARS-CoV-2 Infected Pediatric Cerebral Cortical Neurons: Transcriptomic Analysis and Potential Role of Toll-like Receptors in Pathogenesis.
Agnese GugliandoloLuigi ChiricostaValeria CalcaterraMara BiasinGioia CappellettiStephana CarelliGianvincenzo ZuccottiMaria Antonietta AvanziniPlacido BramantiGloria PelizzoEmanuela MazzonPublished in: International journal of molecular sciences (2021)
Different mechanisms were proposed as responsible for COVID-19 neurological symptoms but a clear one has not been established yet. In this work we aimed to study SARS-CoV-2 capacity to infect pediatric human cortical neuronal HCN-2 cells, studying the changes in the transcriptomic profile by next generation sequencing. SARS-CoV-2 was able to replicate in HCN-2 cells, that did not express ACE2, confirmed also with Western blot, and TMPRSS2. Looking for pattern recognition receptor expression, we found the deregulation of scavenger receptors, such as SR-B1, and the downregulation of genes encoding for Nod-like receptors. On the other hand, TLR1, TLR4 and TLR6 encoding for Toll-like receptors (TLRs) were upregulated. We also found the upregulation of genes encoding for ERK, JNK, NF-κB and Caspase 8 in our transcriptomic analysis. Regarding the expression of known receptors for viral RNA, only RIG-1 showed an increased expression; downstream RIG-1, the genes encoding for TRAF3, IKKε and IRF3 were downregulated. We also found the upregulation of genes encoding for chemokines and accordingly we found an increase in cytokine/chemokine levels in the medium. According to our results, it is possible to speculate that additionally to ACE2 and TMPRSS2, also other receptors may interact with SARS-CoV-2 proteins and mediate its entry or pathogenesis in pediatric cortical neurons infected with SARS-CoV-2. In particular, TLRs signaling could be crucial for the neurological involvement related to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Keyphrases
- sars cov
- induced apoptosis
- signaling pathway
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- poor prognosis
- genome wide
- toll like receptor
- cell proliferation
- inflammatory response
- cell death
- cell cycle arrest
- bioinformatics analysis
- oxidative stress
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- endothelial cells
- pi k akt
- genome wide identification
- coronavirus disease
- cerebral ischemia
- lps induced
- single cell
- angiotensin ii
- binding protein
- angiotensin converting enzyme
- rna seq
- south africa
- gene expression
- drug induced
- childhood cancer