Serial co-expression analysis of host factors from SARS-CoV viruses highly converges with former high-throughput screenings and proposes key regulators

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Abstract

The current genomics era is bringing an unprecedented growth in the amount of gene expression data, only comparable to the exponential growth of sequences in databases during the last decades. This data allow the design of secondary analyses that take advantage of this information to create new knowledge. One of these feasible analyses is the evaluation of the expression level for a gene through a series of different conditions or cell types. Based on this idea, we have developed Automatic and Serial Analysis of CO-expression, which performs expression profiles for a given gene along hundreds of heterogeneous and normalized transcriptomics experiments and discover other genes that show either a similar or an inverse behavior. It might help to discover co-regulated genes, and common transcriptional regulators in any biological model. The present severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is an opportunity to test this novel approach due to the wealth of data that are being generated, which could be used for validating results. Thus, we have identified 35 host factors in the literature putatively involved in the infectious cycle of SARS-CoV viruses and searched for genes tightly co-expressed with them. We have found 1899 co-expressed genes whose assigned functions are strongly related to viral cycles. Moreover, this set of genes heavily overlaps with those identified by former laboratory high-throughput screenings (with P-value near 0). Our results reveal a series of common regulators, involved in immune and inflammatory responses that might be key virus targets to induce the coordinated expression of SARS-CoV-2 host factors.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.28.225078: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Seed and expression data collecting: We searched in PubMed for human genes involved in the infection cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, and both the gene names and UniProtKB entry identifiers were collected.
    PubMed
    suggested: (PubMed, RRID:SCR_004846)
    UniProtKB
    suggested: (UniProtKB, RRID:SCR_004426)
    Then, we used a program written in Python language to get the expression matrices from all the considered experiments.
    Python
    suggested: (IPython, RRID:SCR_001658)
    The functional enrichment were made with KEGG Pathway (Kanehisa et al., 2017), and Reactome (Jassal et al., 2020), using the R libraries biomaRt, clusterProfiler, and ReactomePA, and a p-value cutoff of 0.05.
    KEGG
    suggested: (KEGG, RRID:SCR_012773)
    clusterProfiler
    suggested: (clusterProfiler, RRID:SCR_016884)
    Genes regulated by interferon and genes related to stress granules: To check if a gene was induced or repressed by interferon, its expression was evaluated using the Interferome database v2.01 (Rusinova et al., 2013).
    Interferome
    suggested: (Interferome, RRID:SCR_007743)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your code.


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.28.225078: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Thus, we have identified 35 host factors in the literature putatively involved in the infectious cycle of SARS-CoV and/or SARS-CoV-2 and searched for genes tightly co-expressed with them.
    SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: (Active Motif Cat# 91345, AB_2847847)
    Materials and methods Seed and expression data collecting We searched in PubMed for human genes involved in the infection cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, and both the gene names and UniProtKB entry identifiers were collected.
    PubMed
    suggested: (PubMed, SCR_004846)
          <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
            <div><b>UniProtKB</b></div>
            <div>suggested: (UniProtKB, <a href="https://scicrunch.org/resources/Any/search?q=SCR_004426">SCR_004426</a>)</div>
          </div>
        </td></tr><tr><td style="min-width:100px;vertical-align:top;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">Then, we used a program written in Python language to get the expression matrices from all the considered experiments.</td><td style="min-width:100px;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">
          <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
            <div><b>Python</b></div>
            <div>suggested: (IPython, <a href="https://scicrunch.org/resources/Any/search?q=SCR_001658">SCR_001658</a>)</div>
          </div>
        </td></tr><tr><td style="min-width:100px;vertical-align:top;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">The functional enrichment were made with KEGG Pathway (Kanehisa et al., 2017), and Reactome (Jassal et al., 2020), using the R libraries biomaRt, clusterProfiler, and ReactomePA, and a p-value cutoff of 0.05.</td><td style="min-width:100px;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">
          <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
            <div><b>KEGG</b></div>
            <div>suggested: (KEGG, <a href="https://scicrunch.org/resources/Any/search?q=SCR_012773">SCR_012773</a>)</div>
          </div>
        
          <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
            <div><b>clusterProfiler</b></div>
            <div>suggested: (clusterProfiler, <a href="https://scicrunch.org/resources/Any/search?q=SCR_016884">SCR_016884</a>)</div>
          </div>
        </td></tr><tr><td style="min-width:100px;vertical-align:top;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">Genes regulated by interferon and genes related to stress granules To check if a gene was induced or repressed by interferon, its expression was evaluated using the Interferome database v2.01 (Rusinova et al., 2013).</td><td style="min-width:100px;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">
          <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
            <div><b>Interferome</b></div>
            <div>suggested: (Interferome, <a href="https://scicrunch.org/resources/Any/search?q=SCR_007743">SCR_007743</a>)</div>
          </div>
        </td></tr></table>
    

    Data from additional tools added to each annotation on a weekly basis.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore is not a substitute for expert review. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers) in the manuscript, and detects sentences that appear to be missing RRIDs. SciScore also checks to make sure that rigor criteria are addressed by authors. It does this by detecting sentences that discuss criteria such as blinding or power analysis. SciScore does not guarantee that the rigor criteria that it detects are appropriate for the particular study. Instead it assists authors, editors, and reviewers by drawing attention to sections of the manuscript that contain or should contain various rigor criteria and key resources. For details on the results shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.