The Important Role of TMPRSS2 Gene in Covid-19 and Prostate Cancer: In Silico Approach

HIGHLIGHTS

The main characteristic of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 is that air passes through the upper respiratory tract

The tissue of the upper respiratory tract can express both ACE2 and TMPRSS2.

AR is abundantly expressed in lungs.

TMPRSS2, ACE2, and AR connection explains why high expression of AR gene is present in the male lung.

Abstract

Some studies have discovered a connection between prostate cancer and COVID-19. In this study, we evaluated the link between prostate cancer and COVID-19, contributing to elucidate the connection between TMPRSS2 and ACE2. We discovered 209 number of variants in TMPRSS2 gene, and 110 variants represent EA populations and 99 of them represent AA populations. Moreover, we found 23 suspected missense and 3 unknown variants. Then, linked genes to TMPRSS2 and ACE2 were found in our study. We investigated the expression level of TMPRSS2 and the results showed that it was very high in the prostate, colon, lung, kidney, and saliva-secreting gland. Also, the important role of the AR gene was revealed in addition to other oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes for prostate cancer by KEGG Pathway analysis. In conclusion, these results can highlight several molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2, and also TMPRSS2, ACE2, and AR connection explains the high expression level of AR gene found in the male lung.

Keywords:
COVID-19; ACE2; Prostate cancer; AR; TMPRSS2