Molecular features similarities between SARS-CoV-2, SARS, MERS and key human genes could favour the viral infections and trigger collateral effects

MALDONADO, LUCAS; KAMENETZKY, L.

Scientific Reports

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Año: 2020

2045-2322

In December 2019 risingpneumonia cases caused by a novel β-coronavirus  (SARS-CoV-2)occurred in Wuhan, China, which has rapidly spread worldwide causing thousands of deaths. The WHO declared theSARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a public health emergencyof international concern therefore several scientists are dedicated to the study of the new virus. Since human viruseshave codon usage biases that match highly expressedproteins in the tissues they infect and depend on host cell machinery for replication and co-evolution, we selectedthe genes that are highly expressed in the tissueof human lungs to perform computational studies that permit to compare their molecular features with SARS, SARS-CoV-2and MERS genes. In our studies, we analysed91 molecular features for 339 viral genes and 463 human genes that consisted of 677873 codon positions. Hereby, we foundthat A/T bias in viral genes could propitiatethe viral infection favoured by a host dependant specialization using the host cell machinery of only some genes. Theenvelope protein E, the membrane glycoprotein Mand ORF7 could have been further benefited by a high rate of A/T in the thirdcodon position. Thereby, themistranslation or de-regulation of protein synthesis could produce collateral effects, as a consequence ofviral occupancy of the host translation machinery due to molecular similarities with viralgenes. Furthermore, we provided a list of candidatehuman genes whose molecular features match those of SARS-CoV-2, SARS and MERS genes, which should beconsidered to be incorporated into genetic populationstudies to evaluate thesusceptibility to respiratory viral infections caused bythese viruses.The resultspresented here, settle the basis for further research in the field of human genetics associated with the newviral infection, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 and for the development ofantiviral preventive methods.