IL6 and IL1RN is differentially expressed and transcriptionally induced in models of SARS coronavirus infection.
The coronavirus COVID19 pandemic is an emerging biosafety threat to the nation and the world (1). There are no treatments approved for coronavirus infection in humans (2) and there is a lack of information available regarding the basic transcriptional behavior of human cells and mammalian tissues following coronavirus infection. We mined independent published (3-5) and public (6) datasets, containing transcriptome data from infection models of the human coronavirus 229E and of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus to discover genes that are differentially expressed in coronaviruses and identify potential therapeutic targets and host cell vulnerabilities. We identified IL6 and IL1RN as conserved differentially expressed genes following coronavirus infection. IL6 and IL1RN may be involved in the cellular response to COVID19 infection.