Investigation of COVID-19 comorbidities reveals genes and pathways coincident with the SARS-CoV-2 viral disease

A comprehensive investigation on the receptor BSG expression reveals the potential risk of healthy individuals and cancer patients to 2019-nCoV infection

BACKGROUND

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a newly emerging coronavirus. BSG (basigin) is involved in the tumorigenesis of multiple tumors and recently emerged as a novel viral entry receptor for SARS-CoV-2. However, its expression profile in normal individuals and cancer patients are still unclear.

METHODS

We performed a comprehensive analysis of the expression and distribution of BSG in normal tissues, tumor tissues, and cell lines via bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification. In addition, we investigated the expression of BSG and its isoforms in multiple malignancies and adjacent normal tissues, and explored the prognostic values across pan-cancers. Finally, we conducted function analysis for co-expressed genes with BSG.

RESULTS

We found BSG was highly conserved in different species, and was ubiquitously expressed in almost all normal tissues and significantly increased in some types of cancer tissues. Moreover, BSG at mRNA expression level was higher than ACE2 in normal lung tissues, and lung cancer tissues. High expression of BSG indicated shorter overall survival (OS) in multiple tumors. The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses indicated that BSG is mostly enriched in genes for mitochondria electron transport, oxidoreduction-driven active transmembrane transporter activity, mitochondrial inner membrane, oxidative phosphorylation, and genes involving COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS

Our present work emphasized the value of targeting BSG in the treatment of COVID-19 and cancer, and also provided several novel insights for understanding the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Network Medicine-Based Analysis of Association Between Gynecological Cancers and Metabolic and Hormonal Disorders

Different metabolic and hormonal disorders like type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have tangible socio-economic impact. Prevalence of these metabolic and hormonal disorders is steadily increasing among women. There are clinical evidences that these physiological conditions are related to the manifestation of different gynecological cancers and their poor prognosis. The relationship between metabolic and hormonal disorders with gynecological cancers is quite complex. The need for gene level association study is extremely important to find markers and predicting risk factors. In the current work, we have selected metabolic disorders like T2DM and obesity, hormonal disorder PCOS, and 4 different gynecological cancers like endometrial, uterine, cervical, and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). The gene list was downloaded from DisGeNET database (v 6.0). The protein interaction network was constructed using HIPPIE (v 2.2) and shared proteins were identified. Molecular comorbidity index and Jaccard coefficient (degree of similarity) between the diseases were determined. Pathway enrichment analysis was done using ReactomePA and significant modules (clusters in a network) of the constructed network was analyzed by MCODE plugin of Cytoscape. The comorbid conditions like PCOS-obesity found to increase the risk factor of ovarian and triple negative breast cancers whereas PCOS alone has highest contribution to the endometrial cancer. Different gynecological cancers were found to be differentially related to the metabolic/hormonal disorders and comorbid condition.

Genetic innovations in animal-microbe symbioses

Animal hosts have initiated myriad symbiotic associations with microorganisms and often have maintained these symbioses for millions of years, spanning drastic changes in ecological conditions and lifestyles. The establishment and persistence of these relationships require genetic innovations on the parts of both symbionts and hosts. The nature of symbiont innovations depends on their genetic population structure, categorized here as open, closed or mixed. These categories reflect modes of inter-host transmission that result in distinct genomic features, or genomic syndromes, in symbionts. Although less studied, hosts also innovate in order to preserve and control symbiotic partnerships. New capabilities to sequence host-associated microbial communities and to experimentally manipulate both hosts and symbionts are providing unprecedented insights into how genetic innovations arise under different symbiont population structures and how these innovations function to support symbiotic relationships.

Genetics of agenesis/hypoplasia of the uterus and vagina: narrowing down the number of candidate genes for Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome

PURPOSE

Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome consists of congenital absence of the uterus and vagina and is often associated with renal, skeletal, cardiac, and auditory defects. The genetic basis is largely unknown except for rare variants in several genes. Many candidate genes have been suggested by mouse models and human studies. The purpose of this study was to narrow down the number of candidate genes.

METHODS

Whole exome sequencing was performed on 111 unrelated individuals with MRKH; variant analysis focused on 72 genes suggested by mouse models, human studies of physiological candidates, or located near translocation breakpoints in t(3;16). Candidate variants (CV) predicted to be deleterious were confirmed by Sanger sequencing.

RESULTS

Sanger sequencing verified 54 heterozygous CV from genes identified through mouse (13 CV in 6 genes), human (22 CV in seven genes), and translocation breakpoint (19 CV in 11 genes) studies. Twelve patients had ≥ 2 CVs, including four patients with two variants in the same gene. One likely digenic combination of LAMC1 and MMP14 was identified.

CONCLUSION

We narrowed 72 candidate genes to 10 genes that appear more likely implicated. These candidate genes will require further investigation to elucidate their role in the development of MRKH.