Human pulmonary artery endothelial cells upregulate ACE2 expression in response to iron-regulatory elements: potential implications for SARS-CoV-2 infection of vascular endothelial cells
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Abstract
Emerging studies from the ongoing covid-19 pandemic have implicated vascular dysfunction and endotheliitis in many patients presenting with severe disease. However, there is limited evidence for the expression of ACE2 (the principal co-receptor for Sars-Cov-2 cellular attachment) in vascular endothelial cells which has prompted the suggestion that the virus does not infect these cell types. However, the studies presented here demonstrate enhanced expression of ACE2 at the level of both mRNA and protein, in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs) challenged with either IL-6 or hepcidin. Notably elevated levels both these iron-regulatory elements have been described in Covid-19 patients with severe disease and are further associated with morbidity and mortality. Additionally, levels of both IL-6 and hepcidin are often elevated in the elderly and in chronic disease settings, these populations being at greater risk of adverse outcomes from Sars-Cov-2 infection. A role for IL-6 and hepcidin as modulators of ACE2 expression seems plausible, additional, studies are required to determine if viral infection can be demonstrated in PAECs challenged with either of these iron-regulatory elements.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.08.437687: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not 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 found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend …
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.08.437687: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not 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 found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).
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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