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Assignment 2
The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) enters the lower respiratory tract and causes
severe respiratory failure1. Lung epithelium stem cells are important in the regeneration
of the airway and alveolar epithelia following infections; therefore, regeneration capacity
can be impacted if the stem cells are damaged. Valyaeva et al. in their preprint use
publicly available RNA-seq data to examine the expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors
in different epithelial stem cells2. While the study found that SARS-CoV-2 can infect
stem cells, there are problems related to the validity of the study, and the inclusion of
irrelevant information in the data figures.
In the preprint, the researchers assumed that datasets from mice can be used to analyze
SARS-CoV-2 entry factors in humans. They based this assumption on another study
conducted in 2018 which demonstrated similarity in the pattern of SARS-CoV-2 entry
factor gene expression on different epithelial cells of mouse and human airways shown in
figure S12,3. However, gene expressions do not correlate with protein expressions.
Translation of these entry factors gene into protein may differ in mice and humans
despite 98% similarity in their working DNA. In vitro testing must be completed in the
