State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Research Unit of Oral Carcinogenesis and Management, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Int J Oral Sci. 2020 Feb 24;12(1):8. doi: 10.1038/s41368-020-0074-x.
It has been reported that ACE2 is the main host cell receptor of 2019-nCoV and plays a crucial role in the entry of virus into the cell to cause the final infection. To investigate the potential route of 2019-nCov infection on the mucosa of oral cavity, bulk RNA-seq profiles from two public databases including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Functional Annotation of The Mammalian Genome Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (FANTOM5 CAGE) dataset were collected. RNA-seq profiling data of 13 organ types with para-carcinoma normal tissues from TCGA and 14 organ types with normal tissues from FANTOM5 CAGE were analyzed in order to explore and validate the expression of ACE2 on the mucosa of oral cavity. Further, single-cell transcriptomes from an independent data generated in-house were used to identify and confirm the ACE2-expressing cell composition and proportion in oral cavity. The results demonstrated that the ACE2 expressed on the mucosa of oral cavity. Interestingly, this receptor was highly enriched in epithelial cells of tongue. Preliminarily, those findings have explained the basic mechanism that the oral cavity is a potentially high risk for 2019-nCoV infectious susceptibility and provided a piece of evidence for the future prevention strategy in dental clinical practice as well as daily life.
据报道，ACE2 是 2019-nCoV 的主要宿主细胞受体，在病毒进入细胞引起最终感染中起关键作用。为了研究 2019-nCoV 感染口腔黏膜的潜在途径，我们从两个公共数据库（包括癌症基因组图谱（TCGA）和功能注释哺乳动物基因组 Cap 分析基因表达（FANTOM5 CAGE）数据集）中收集了批量 RNA-seq 图谱。分析了 TCGA 中来自 13 种器官类型的 13 种器官类型的癌旁正常组织和 FANTOM5 CAGE 中来自 14 种器官类型的正常组织的 RNA-seq 图谱，以探讨和验证 ACE2 在口腔黏膜上的表达。此外，还使用内部生成的独立数据集的单细胞转录组数据来鉴定和确认口腔中 ACE2 表达细胞的组成和比例。结果表明 ACE2 表达在口腔黏膜上。有趣的是，这种受体在舌上皮细胞中高度富集。初步研究结果解释了口腔是 2019-nCoV 感染易感性的潜在高风险部位的基本机制，并为未来牙科临床实践和日常生活中的预防策略提供了依据。
