SARS-CoV-2 selectively mimics a cleavable peptide of human ENaC in a strategic hijack of host proteolytic machinery

  1. Praveen Anand
  2. Arjun Puranik
  3. Murali Aravamudan
  4. AJ Venkatakrishnan
  5. Venky Soundararajan

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Abstract

Molecular mimicry of host proteins is an evolutionary strategy adopted by viruses to evade immune surveillance and exploit host cell systems. We report that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved a unique S1/S2 cleavage site (RRARSVAS), absent in any previous coronavirus sequenced, that results in mimicry of an identical FURIN-cleavable peptide on the human epithelial sodium channel α-subunit (ENaC-α). Genetic truncation at this ENaC-α cleavage site causes aldosterone dysregulation in patients, highlighting the functional importance of the mimicked SARS-CoV-2 peptide. Single cell RNA-seq from 65 studies shows significant overlap between the expression of ENaC-α and ACE2, the putative receptor for the virus, in cell types linked to the cardiovascular-renal-pulmonary pathophysiology of COVID-19. Triangulating this cellular fingerprint with amino acid cleavage signatures of 178 human proteases shows the potential for tissue-specific proteolytic degeneracy wired into the SARS-CoV-2 lifecycle. We extrapolate that the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 into a global coronavirus pandemic may be in part due to its targeted mimicry of human ENaC and hijack of the associated host proteolytic network.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.29.069476: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    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.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.29.069476 on bioRxiv