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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.12.21.423733

Evidence of a dysregulated Vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2 infected patient's lung cells

George, B.·Amjesh, R.·Paul, A. M.·Pillai, M. R.·Kumar, R.
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Abstract

Although a defective vitamin D pathway has been widely suspected to be associated in SARS-CoV-2 pathobiology, the status of the vitamin D pathway and vitamin D-modulated genes in lung cells of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown. To understand the significance of the vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2 pathobiology, computational approaches were applied to transcriptomic datasets from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells of such patients or healthy individuals. Levels of vitamin D receptor, retinoid X receptor, and CYP27A1 in BALF cells of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 were found to be reduced. Additionally, 107 differentially expressed, predominantly downregulated genes modulated by vitamin D were identified in transcriptomic datasets from patients cells. Further analysis of differentially expressed genes provided eight novel genes with a conserved motif with vitamin D-responsive elements, implying the role of both direct and indirect mechanisms of gene expression by the dysregulated vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells. Network analysis of differentially expressed vitamin D-modulated genes identified pathways in the immune system, NF-KB/cytokine signaling, and cell cycle regulation as top predicted pathways that might be affected in the cells of such patients. In brief, the results provided computational evidence to implicate a dysregulated vitamin D pathway in the pathobiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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George, B., Amjesh, R., Paul, A. M., Pillai, M. R., Kumar, R.. 2020-12-21. Evidence of a dysregulated Vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2 infected patient's lung cells. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.21.423733

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