PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Wei Lin
AU  - Longfei Hu
AU  - Yan Zhang
AU  - Joshua D. Ooi
AU  - Ting Meng
AU  - Peng Jin
AU  - Xiang Ding
AU  - Longkai Peng
AU  - Lei Song
AU  - Zhou Xiao
AU  - Xiang Ao
AU  - Xiangcheng Xiao
AU  - Qiaoling Zhou
AU  - Ping Xiao
AU  - Jue Fan
AU  - Yong Zhong
TI  - Single-cell Analysis of ACE2 Expression in Human Kidneys and Bladders Reveals a Potential Route of 2019-nCoV Infection
AID  - 10.1101/2020.02.08.939892
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.02.08.939892
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/18/2020.02.08.939892.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/18/2020.02.08.939892.full
AB  - Since December 2019, a novel coronavirus named 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has emerged in Wuhan of China and spread to several countries worldwide within just one month. Apart from fever and respiratory complications, acute kidney injury has been observed in some patients with 2019-nCoV. In a short period of time, angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), have been proposed to serve as the receptor for the entry of 2019-nCoV, which is the same for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS). To investigate the possible cause of kidney damage in 2019-nCoV patients, we used both published kidney and bladder cell atlas data and an independent unpublished kidney single cell RNA-Seq data generated in-house to evaluate ACE2 gene expressions in all cell types in healthy kidneys and bladders.Our results showed the enriched expression of all subtypes of proximal tubule cells of kidney and low but detectable levels of expression in bladder epithelial cells. These results indicated the urinary system is a potential route for 2019-nCoV infection, along with the respiratory system and digestion system. Our findings suggested the kidney abnormalities of SARS and 2019-nCoV patients may be due to proximal tubule cells damage and subsequent systematic inflammatory response induced kidney injury. Beyond that, laboratory tests of viruses and related indicators in urine may be needed in some special patients of 2019-nCoV.