Possibility of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the Metastatic Microenvironment of Cancer

  1. Takuma Hayashi
  2. Kenji Sano
  3. Ikuo Konishi

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Abstract

According to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO), the mortality and disease severity induced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are significantly higher in cancer patients than those of individuals with no known condition. Common and cancer-specific risk factors might be involved in the mortality and severity rates observed in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Similarly, various factors might contribute to the aggravation of COVID-19 in patients with cancer. However, the factors involved in the aggravation of COVID-19 in cancer patients have not been fully investigated so far. The formation of metastases in other organs is common in cancer patients. Therefore, the present study investigated the association between lung metastatic lesion formation and SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. In the pulmonary micrometastatic niche of patients with ovarian cancer, alveolar epithelial stem-like cells were found adjacent to ovarian cancer. Moreover, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, a host-side receptor for SARS-CoV-2, was expressed in these alveolar epithelial stem-like cells. Furthermore, the spike glycoprotein receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 was bound to alveolar epithelial stem-like cells. Altogether, these data suggested that patients with cancer and pulmonary micrometastases are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. The prevention of de novo niche formation in metastatic diseases might constitute a new strategy for the clinical treatment of COVID-19 for patients with cancer.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/cimb44010017
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.24.21257662: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIACUC: These IHC experiments with human tissue sections were conducted using standard procedures at Shinshu University (Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan) and National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center (Kyoto, Kyoto Japan) in accordance with institutional guidelines (approval no. M192).
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Antibodies and immunohistochemistry (IHC): IHC staining for S100A4, CD90(Thy1), ACE2, and RBD of the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 was performed on the tissue sections of pulmonary micrometastases of patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
    S100A4
    suggested: None
    CD90
    suggested: None
    ACE2
    suggested: None

    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.
    • 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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.24.21257662v1 on medRxiv