European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), which caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is recognized as a life-threatening disease accounting for a considerable large morbidity and mortality in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) patients. The interplay between the virus and CLL disease at molecular level and whether the biology of CLL disease can contribute to the severity of infection are uncertain. Herein, I investigated the gene expression of 15 SARS-CoV-2 and coronavirus-related receptors and factors in CLL disease based on meta-analysis of microarray datasets. The analysis revealed significant increase in the expression of 4 entry-promoting factors (BSG, CLEC4G, CLEC4M and DPP4), whereas the well-known entry receptor (i.e. ACE-2) and protease (i.e. TMPRSS2) for SARS-CoV-2 were not expressed at significant high level in CLL disease. In regard to the entry-restricting factors, CLL disease demonstrated a significant decrease in IFITM2 and LY6E genes. These results reiterated the findings from other studies which indicated a higher gene expression of the virus-entry receptors as well as lower gene expression of the virus-entry restrictors in COVID-19 comorbidity diseases compared to healthy controls. These findings suggest possible roles of the host genetic factors related to SARS-CoV-2 entry on the comorbidity between CLL and COVID-19 disease