Abstract
By engaging angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2 or Ace2), the novel pathogenic SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may invade host cells in many organs, including the brain. However, the distribution of ACE2 in the brain is still obscure. Here we investigated the ACE2 expression in the brain by analyzing data from publicly available brain transcriptome databases. According to our spatial distribution analysis, ACE2 was relatively highly expressed in some important locations, such as the substantia nigra and the choroid plexus. According to our cell-type distribution analysis, nuclear expression of ACE2 was found in many neurons (both excitatory and inhibitory neurons) and some non-neuron cells (mainly astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and endothelial cells) in human middle temporal gyrus and posterior cingulate cortex. A few ACE2-expressing nuclei were found in a hippocampal dataset, and none were detected in the prefrontal cortex. Except for the additional high expression of Ace2 in the olfactory bulb areas for spatial distribution as well as in the pericytes and endothelial cells for cell-type distribution, the distribution of Ace2 in mouse brain was similar to that in the human brain. Thus, our results reveal an outline of ACE2/Ace2 distribution in the human and mouse brain, which indicates the brain infection of SARS-CoV-2 may be capable of inducing central nervous system symptoms in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
With the help of Derek Howard and Leon French, we reanalyzed the data from Allen Human Brain Atlas. We revised the figure 2C and added a new Figure 3. We also provided additional summary data for our analysis, including the new Figures 4 and 6. Some original figures were moved to Supplementary Figures. Thank you very much.
