Relative Abundance of SARS-CoV-2 Entry Genes in the Enterocytes of the Lower Gastrointestinal Tract

  1. Jaewon J. Lee
  2. Scott Kopetz
  3. Eduardo Vilar
  4. John Paul Shen
  5. Ken Chen
  6. Anirban Maitra

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Abstract

There is increasing evidence of gastrointestinal (GI) infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We surveyed the co-expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes ACE2 and TMPRSS2 throughout the GI tract to assess potential sites of infection. Publicly available and in-house single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets from the GI tract were queried. Enterocytes from the small intestine and colonocytes showed the highest proportions of cells co-expressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Therefore, the lower GI tract represents the most likely site of SARS-CoV-2 entry leading to GI infection.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/genes11060645
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.08.033001: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: For in-house normal colon samples, a total of 7 patients were recruited at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center through written informed consent following Institutional Review Board approval.
    IRB: For in-house normal colon samples, a total of 7 patients were recruited at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center through written informed consent following Institutional Review Board approval.
    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.
    • 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.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.08.033001v1 on bioRxiv