IFI44 is differentially expressed in models of coronavirus infection in vivo.
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 two independent published datasets (3-4), containing transcriptome data from infection models of the severe acute respiratory distress syndrome SARS coronavirus in mice and in ferrets to discover genes that are differentially expressed in coronaviruses in vivo and identify potential therapeutic targets and host cell vulnerabilities. We identified IFI44 as a conserved differentially expressed gene following coronavirus infection in the blood of infected ferrets and in the lungs of infected mice. IFI44 may be involved in the cellular response to COVID19 infection or a host cell vulnerability, exploited by coronaviruses.