@article{9911267bf2204764bfdb73713d6c34be,
title = "SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are primarily expressed in bronchial transient secretory cells",
abstract = "The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affecting the human respiratory system severely challenges public health and urgently demands for increasing our understanding of COVID-19 pathogenesis, especially host factors facilitating virus infection and replication. SARS-CoV-2 was reported to enter cells via binding to ACE2, followed by its priming by TMPRSS2. Here, we investigate ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression levels and their distribution across cell types in lung tissue (twelve donors, 39,778 cells) and in cells derived from subsegmental bronchial branches (four donors, 17,521 cells) by single nuclei and single cell RNA sequencing, respectively. While TMPRSS2 is strongly expressed in both tissues, in the subsegmental bronchial branches ACE2 is predominantly expressed in a transient secretory cell type. Interestingly, these transiently differentiating cells show an enrichment for pathways related to RHO GTPase function and viral processes suggesting increased vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our data provide a rich resource for future investigations of COVID-19 infection and pathogenesis.",
keywords = "COVID-19, epithelial differentiation, FURIN, Human Cell Atlas, respiratory tract, RESPIRATORY SYNDROME CORONAVIRUS, SARS-CORONAVIRUS, EPITHELIAL-CELLS, FUNCTIONAL RECEPTOR, SPIKE, ENTRY, PATHOGENESIS, ACTIVATION, PNEUMONIA, 2019-NCOV",
author = "Soeren Lukassen and Chua, {Robert Lorenz} and Timo Trefzer and Kahn, {Nicolas C.} and Schneider, {Marc A.} and Thomas Muley and Hauke Winter and Michael Meister and Carmen Veith and Boots, {Agnes W.} and Hennig, {Bianca P.} and Michael Kreuter and Christian Conrad and Roland Eils",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Martin Fallenb{\"u}chel and Christa Stolp for collection of tissue samples and Elizabeth Chang Xu for establishment of ALI cultures. We thank Leif Erik Sander, Irina Lehmann, and Saskia Trump for advice in this study. Cryopreserved surgical lung tissues from patients were kindly provided from the Lung Biobank Heidelberg, a member of the accredited Tissue Bank of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, the BioMaterialBank Heidelberg, and the Biobank platform of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL). European Respiratory Society (STRTF ‐ 201804‐00377, fellowship CV). This study was supported by the European Commission (ESPACE, 874710, Horizon 2020) and the German Center for Lung Research (DZL, 82DZL00402). This publication is part of the Human Cell Atlas— www.humancellatlas.org/publications . Funding Information: We thank Martin Fallenb?chel and Christa Stolp for collection of tissue samples and Elizabeth Chang Xu for establishment of ALI cultures. We thank Leif Erik Sander, Irina Lehmann, and Saskia Trump for advice in this study. Cryopreserved surgical lung tissues from patients were kindly provided from the Lung Biobank Heidelberg, a member of the accredited Tissue Bank of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, the BioMaterialBank Heidelberg, and the Biobank platform of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL). European Respiratory Society (STRTF - 201804-00377, fellowship CV). This study was supported by the European Commission (ESPACE, 874710, Horizon 2020) and the German Center for Lung Research (DZL, 82DZL00402). This publication is part of the Human Cell Atlas?www.humancellatlas.org/publications. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license",
year = "2020",
month = may,
day = "18",
doi = "10.15252/embj.20105114",
language = "English",
volume = "39",
journal = "The Embo Journal",
issn = "0261-4189",
publisher = "Wiley",
number = "10",
}