Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis

For a yet unknown reason, a substantial share of patients suffering from COVID-19 develop long-lasting neuropsychiatric symptoms ranging from cognitive deficits to mood disorders and/or an extreme fatigue. We previously reported that in non-neural cells, angiotensin-1 converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the...

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Autores principales: Nataf, Serge, Pays, Laurent
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8508788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34638785
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910440
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author Nataf, Serge
Pays, Laurent
author_facet Nataf, Serge
Pays, Laurent
author_sort Nataf, Serge
collection PubMed
description For a yet unknown reason, a substantial share of patients suffering from COVID-19 develop long-lasting neuropsychiatric symptoms ranging from cognitive deficits to mood disorders and/or an extreme fatigue. We previously reported that in non-neural cells, angiotensin-1 converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the gene coding for the SARS-CoV2 host receptor, harbors tight co-expression links with dopa-decarboxylase (DDC), an enzyme involved in the metabolism of dopamine. Here, we mined and integrated data from distinct human expression atlases and found that, among a wide range of tissues and cells, enterocytes of the small intestine express the highest expression levels of ACE2, DDC and several key genes supporting the metabolism of neurotransmitters. Based on these results, we performed co-expression analyses on a recently published set of RNA-seq data obtained from SARS-CoV2-infected human intestinal organoids. We observed that in SARS-CoV2-infected enterocytes, ACE2 co-regulates not only with DDC but also with a specific group of genes involved in (i) the dopamine/trace amines metabolic pathway, (ii) the absorption of microbiota-derived L-DOPA and (iii) the absorption of neutral amino acids serving as precursors to neurotransmitters. We conclude that in patients with long COVID, a chronic infection and inflammation of small intestine enterocytes might be indirectly responsible for prolonged brain alterations.
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spelling pubmed-85087882021-10-13 Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis Nataf, Serge Pays, Laurent Int J Mol Sci Article For a yet unknown reason, a substantial share of patients suffering from COVID-19 develop long-lasting neuropsychiatric symptoms ranging from cognitive deficits to mood disorders and/or an extreme fatigue. We previously reported that in non-neural cells, angiotensin-1 converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the gene coding for the SARS-CoV2 host receptor, harbors tight co-expression links with dopa-decarboxylase (DDC), an enzyme involved in the metabolism of dopamine. Here, we mined and integrated data from distinct human expression atlases and found that, among a wide range of tissues and cells, enterocytes of the small intestine express the highest expression levels of ACE2, DDC and several key genes supporting the metabolism of neurotransmitters. Based on these results, we performed co-expression analyses on a recently published set of RNA-seq data obtained from SARS-CoV2-infected human intestinal organoids. We observed that in SARS-CoV2-infected enterocytes, ACE2 co-regulates not only with DDC but also with a specific group of genes involved in (i) the dopamine/trace amines metabolic pathway, (ii) the absorption of microbiota-derived L-DOPA and (iii) the absorption of neutral amino acids serving as precursors to neurotransmitters. We conclude that in patients with long COVID, a chronic infection and inflammation of small intestine enterocytes might be indirectly responsible for prolonged brain alterations. MDPI 2021-09-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8508788/ /pubmed/34638785 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910440 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Nataf, Serge
Pays, Laurent
Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis
title Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis
title_full Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis
title_fullStr Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis
title_full_unstemmed Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis
title_short Molecular Insights into SARS-CoV2-Induced Alterations of the Gut/Brain Axis
title_sort molecular insights into sars-cov2-induced alterations of the gut/brain axis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8508788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34638785
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910440
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