Int J Biol Sci 2021; 17(14):3954-3967. doi:10.7150/ijbs.63072 This issue Cite

Research Paper

COVID-19 disease and malignant cancers: The impact for the furin gene expression in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2

Dabing Li1,2#, Xiaoyan Liu2#, Lianmei Zhang3#, Jiayue He2#, Xianmao Chen1,2, Shuguang Liu2, Jiewen Fu2, Shangyi Fu4,5, Hanchun Chen6✉, Junjiang Fu2✉, Jingliang Cheng2,7✉

1. Basic Medical School, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China.
2. Key Laboratory of Epigenetics and Oncology, the Research Center for Preclinical Medicine, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China.
3. Department of Pathology, the Affiliated Huaian No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Huai'an 223300, Jiangsu Province, China.
4. School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston 77030, Texas, USA.
5. Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston 77030, Texas, USA.
6. Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China.
7. Department of Medical Technology, Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
#Equal contributions to this work.

Citation:
Li D, Liu X, Zhang L, He J, Chen X, Liu S, Fu J, Fu S, Chen H, Fu J, Cheng J. COVID-19 disease and malignant cancers: The impact for the furin gene expression in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. Int J Biol Sci 2021; 17(14):3954-3967. doi:10.7150/ijbs.63072. https://www.ijbs.com/v17p3954.htm
Other styles

File import instruction

Abstract

Graphic abstract

Furin is a proprotein convertase that activates different kinds of regulatory proteins, including SARS-CoV-2 spike protein which contains an additional furin-specific cleavage site. It is essential in predicting cancer patients' susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and the disease outcomes due to varying furin expressions in tumor tissues. In this study, we analyzed furin's expression, methylation, mutation rate, functional enrichment, survival rate and COVID-19 outcomes in normal and cancer tissues using online databases, and our IHC. As a result, furin presented with biased expression profiles in normal tissues, showing 12.25-fold higher than ACE2 in the lungs. The furin expression in tumors were significantly increased in ESCA and TGCT, and decreased in DLBC and THYM, indicating furin may play critical mechanistic functions in COVID-19 viral entry into cells in these cancer patients. Line with furin over/downexpression, furin promoter hypo-/hyper-methylation may be the regulatory cause of disease and lead to pathogenesis of ESCA and THYM. Furthermore, presence of FURIN-201 isoform with functional domains (P_proprotein, Peptidase_S8 and S8_pro-domain) is highest in all cancer types in comparison to other isoforms, demonstrating its use in tumorigenesis and SARS-Cov-2 entry into tumor tissues. Furin mutation frequency was highest in UCES, and its mutation might elevate ACE2 expression in LUAD and UCEC, reduce ACE2 expression in COAD, elevate HSPA5 expression in PAAD, and elevate TMPRSS2 expression in BRCA. These results showed that furin mutations mostly increased expression of ACE2, HSPA5, and TMPRSS2 in certain cancers, indicating furin mutations might facilitate COVID-19 cell entry in cancer patients. In addition, high expression of furin was significantly inversely correlated with long overall survival (OS) in LGG and correlated with long OS in COAD and KIRC, indicating that it could be used as a favorable prognostic marker for cancer patients' survival. GO and KEGG demonstrated that furin was mostly enriched in genes for metabolic and biosynthetic processes, retinal dehydrogenase activity, tRNA methyltransferase activity, and genes involving COVID-19, further supporting its role in COVID-19 and cancer metabolism. Moreover, Cordycepin (CD) inhibited furin expression in a dosage dependent manner. Altogether, furin's high expression might not only implies increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and higher severity of COVID-19 symptoms in cancer patients, but also it highlights the need for cancer treatment and therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. CD might have a potential to develop an anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug through inhibiting furin expression.

Keywords: COVID-19, furin, malignant cancers, SARS-CoV-2, susceptibility, cordycepin (CD)


Citation styles

APA
Li, D., Liu, X., Zhang, L., He, J., Chen, X., Liu, S., Fu, J., Fu, S., Chen, H., Fu, J., Cheng, J. (2021). COVID-19 disease and malignant cancers: The impact for the furin gene expression in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. International Journal of Biological Sciences, 17(14), 3954-3967. https://doi.org/10.7150/ijbs.63072.

ACS
Li, D.; Liu, X.; Zhang, L.; He, J.; Chen, X.; Liu, S.; Fu, J.; Fu, S.; Chen, H.; Fu, J.; Cheng, J. COVID-19 disease and malignant cancers: The impact for the furin gene expression in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. Int. J. Biol. Sci. 2021, 17 (14), 3954-3967. DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.63072.

NLM
Li D, Liu X, Zhang L, He J, Chen X, Liu S, Fu J, Fu S, Chen H, Fu J, Cheng J. COVID-19 disease and malignant cancers: The impact for the furin gene expression in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. Int J Biol Sci 2021; 17(14):3954-3967. doi:10.7150/ijbs.63072. https://www.ijbs.com/v17p3954.htm

CSE
Li D, Liu X, Zhang L, He J, Chen X, Liu S, Fu J, Fu S, Chen H, Fu J, Cheng J. 2021. COVID-19 disease and malignant cancers: The impact for the furin gene expression in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. Int J Biol Sci. 17(14):3954-3967.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). See http://ivyspring.com/terms for full terms and conditions.
Popup Image