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A trawl through a monkey genome using the CRISPR–Cas9 genome-editing system has identified a handful of genes that might help the new coronavirus to infect its hosts.
The discovery of host genes that aid viral activity could aid the development of new therapies, and reveal why some people are more susceptible to COVID-19 than others. John Doench at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Craig Wilen at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and their colleagues used CRISPR–Cas9 to alter genes in cultured monkey cells. They then looked for those genes that influenced viral infection and host-cell death (J. Wei et al. Preprint at bioRxiv http://doi.org/dzz3; 2020).
The team’s survey found genes that code for several proteins not known to assist the coronavirus. Among them are proteins in the TGF-β signalling pathway, which is involved in cell growth and death. Chemicals that inhibit this pathway also prevented coronavirus-induced cell death. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
Preprint of the Original Study available at bioRxiv (June 17, 2020)"
