Journal
INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION
Volume 93, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2021.104923
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; RNA-seq; Lung epithelial cells; Circular RNA
Categories
Funding
- Applied Basic Research Key Project of Yunnan (CN) [202001AS070046]
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences [2017-I2M-3-022]
- Yunnan Technology Innovation Talent Projects [2017HB096]
- Fund for Reserve Talents of Young and Middle-aged Academic and Technical Leaders of Yunnan Province [2019HB043]
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The study revealed that during SARS-CoV-2 infection, the dynamic expression and functions of circRNAs changed, particularly in immune and inflammatory responses. Dysregulated circRNAs could regulate gene stability, immunity, and cell death by binding RNA binding proteins, and indirectly modulate gene expression by absorbing miRNAs.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an emerging and highly pathogenic coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and might even lead to death. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a new type of RNAs, are implicated in viral pathogenesis and host immune responses. However, their dynamic expression patterns and functions during SARS-CoV-2 infection remain to be unclear. We herein performed genome-wide dynamic analysis of circRNAs in human lung epithelial cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 at four time points. A total of 6118 circRNAs were identified at different genomic locations, including 5641 known and 477 novel circRNAs. Notably, a total of 42 circRNAs were significantly dysregulated, wherein 17 were up-regulated and 25 were down-regulated following infection at multiple phases. The gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analyses revealed that the parental genes of circRNAs were mainly involved in immune and inflammatory responses. Further, the RNA binding protein (RBP) prediction analysis indicated that the dysregulated circRNAs could regulate mRNA stability, immunity, cell death by binding specific proteins. Additionally, the circRNAmiRNA-gene network analysis showed that circRNAs indirectly regulated gene expression by absorbing their targeted miRNAs. Collectively, these results shed light on the roles of circRNAs in virus-host interactions, facilitating future studies on SARS-CoV-2 infection and pathogenesis.
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