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Hart D, Petri WA. Hyaluronan deposition during COVID-19 - helpful or harmful? Trends Mol Med 2024; 30:207-208. [PMID: 38331701 DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2024.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Revised: 01/11/2024] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024]
Abstract
Hyaluronan (HA), an extracellular matrix polysaccharide, is increased in the lungs during COVID-19 and correlates with severity. HA acts as an immune mediator that aids cell trafficking and intracellular signaling, but its role in COVID-19 is debated. Although HA is implicated in pulmonary viral disease pathogenesis, some studies suggest a potential protective function in COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Duncan Hart
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - William A Petri
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
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Kumar S, Granados J, Aceves M, Peralta J, Leandro AC, Thomas J, Williams-Blangero S, Curran JE, Blangero J. Pre-Infection Innate Immunity Attenuates SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Viral Load in iPSC-Derived Alveolar Epithelial Type 2 Cells. Cells 2024; 13:369. [PMID: 38474333 PMCID: PMC10931100 DOI: 10.3390/cells13050369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2023] [Revised: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
A large portion of the heterogeneity in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) susceptibility and severity of illness (SOI) remains poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 infection-associated damage to alveolar epithelial type 2 cells (AT2s) in the distal lung may directly contribute to disease severity and poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients. Our in vitro modeling of SARS-CoV-2 infection in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived AT2s from 10 different individuals showed interindividual variability in infection susceptibility and the postinfection cellular viral load. To understand the underlying mechanism of the AT2's capacity to regulate SARS-CoV-2 infection and cellular viral load, a genome-wide differential gene expression analysis between the mock and SARS-CoV-2 infection-challenged AT2s was performed. The 1393 genes, which were significantly (one-way ANOVA FDR-corrected p ≤ 0.05; FC abs ≥ 2.0) differentially expressed (DE), suggest significant upregulation of viral infection-related cellular innate immune response pathways (p-value ≤ 0.05; activation z-score ≥ 3.5), and significant downregulation of the cholesterol- and xenobiotic-related metabolic pathways (p-value ≤ 0.05; activation z-score ≤ -3.5). Whilst the effect of post-SARS-CoV-2 infection response on the infection susceptibility and postinfection viral load in AT2s is not clear, interestingly, pre-infection (mock-challenged) expression of 238 DE genes showed a high correlation with the postinfection SARS-CoV-2 viral load (FDR-corrected p-value ≤ 0.05 and r2-absolute ≥ 0.57). The 85 genes whose expression was negatively correlated with the viral load showed significant enrichment in viral recognition and cytokine-mediated innate immune GO biological processes (p-value range: 4.65 × 10-10 to 2.24 × 10-6). The 153 genes whose expression was positively correlated with the viral load showed significant enrichment in cholesterol homeostasis, extracellular matrix, and MAPK/ERK pathway-related GO biological processes (p-value range: 5.06 × 10-5 to 6.53 × 10-4). Overall, our results strongly suggest that AT2s' pre-infection innate immunity and metabolic state affect their susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral load.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satish Kumar
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, McAllen, TX 78504, USA; (J.G.); (M.A.); (J.T.)
| | - Jose Granados
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, McAllen, TX 78504, USA; (J.G.); (M.A.); (J.T.)
| | - Miriam Aceves
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, McAllen, TX 78504, USA; (J.G.); (M.A.); (J.T.)
| | - Juan Peralta
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA; (J.P.); (A.C.L.); (S.W.-B.); (J.E.C.); (J.B.)
| | - Ana C. Leandro
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA; (J.P.); (A.C.L.); (S.W.-B.); (J.E.C.); (J.B.)
| | - John Thomas
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, McAllen, TX 78504, USA; (J.G.); (M.A.); (J.T.)
| | - Sarah Williams-Blangero
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA; (J.P.); (A.C.L.); (S.W.-B.); (J.E.C.); (J.B.)
| | - Joanne E. Curran
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA; (J.P.); (A.C.L.); (S.W.-B.); (J.E.C.); (J.B.)
| | - John Blangero
- Division of Human Genetics and South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA; (J.P.); (A.C.L.); (S.W.-B.); (J.E.C.); (J.B.)
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