SARS-CoV-2 WA1 induces distinct immune transcriptome profiles in human and deer primary respiratory epithelial cells

---

Presentation Time: 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM
Poster Board Number: B501
Abstract ID: 4110

Presenting Author:
Rahul K Nelli , Assistant Professor at Iowa State Univ.

Abstract:

The ability of SARS-CoV-2 to infect animals, especially white-tailed deer (WTD), is a public health and economic concern. Humans experience varied clinical outcomes, while WTD are usually asymptomatic carriers. The immune factors responsible for these differences have yet to be studied. A comparative transcriptomic analysis in primary respiratory epithelial cells of humans (HRECs) and WTD (Deer-RECs) infected with SARS-CoV-2 WA1 was assessed throughout 48 hours post-inoculation (hpi). Both HRECs and Deer-RECs were susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, with significantly (P < 0.001) lower virus replication in Deer-RECs. The number of differentially expressed genes (DEG) gradually increased in Deer-RECs but decreased in HRECs throughout the infection. The ingenuity pathway analysis of DEGs further identified that genes commonly altered during SARS-CoV-2 infection mainly belong to cytokine/chemokine response pathways mediated via IL-17 and NF-κB signaling pathways. SARS-CoV-2 activated AP-1/JUN transcription factor in both HRECs and Deer-RECs. Deer-RECs showed delayed upregulation of genes related to wound repair, including CXCL8, MAP4K4, p21, VEGFA, and HBEGF. The early inhibition of the NF-κB signaling in Deer-RECs predicted at 6 hpi may have contributed to the comparatively less proinflammation observed in Deer-RECs than HRECs. These findings may partly explain differences in WTD and human responses to SARS-CoV-2 WA1 infection.