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Reprogramming of the intestinal epithelial-immune cell interactome during SARS-CoV-2 infection

Poletti, M.; Treveil, A.; Gul, L.; Modos, D.; Madgwick, M.; Olbei, M.; Bohar, B.; Valdeolivas, A.; Turei, D.; Verstockt, B.; Triana, S.; Alexandrov, T.; Saez-Rodriguez, J.; Stanifer, M. L.; Boulant, S.; Korcsmaros, T.

2021-08-09 bioinformatics
10.1101/2021.08.09.455656 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) represents an unprecedented worldwide health problem. Although the primary site of infection is the lung, growing evidence points towards a crucial role of the intestinal epithelium. Yet, the exact effects of viral infection and the role of intestinal epithelial-immune cell interactions in mediating the inflammatory response are not known. In this work, we apply network biology approaches to single-cell RNA-seq data from SARS-CoV-2 infected human ileal and colonic organoids to investigate how altered intracellular pathways upon infection in intestinal enterocytes leads to modified epithelial-immune crosstalk. We point out specific epithelial-immune interactions which could help SARS-CoV-2 evade the immune response. By integrating our data with existing experimental data, we provide a set of epithelial ligands likely to drive the inflammatory response upon infection. Our integrated analysis of intra- and inter-cellular molecular networks contribute to finding potential drug targets, and suggest using existing anti-inflammatory therapies in the gut as promising drug repurposing strategies against COVID-19.

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