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Single-Cell Gene Regulatory Network Analysis Reveals Potential Mechanisms of Action of Antimalarials Against SARS-CoV-2

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Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences (ICCABS 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNBI,volume 12686))

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Abstract

The efficiency of antimalarials, chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), in the prevention and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is under intense debate. The mechanisms of action of antimalarials against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have not been fully elucidated. Here, we applied a network-based comparative analysis, implemented in our machine learning workflow—scTenifoldNet, to scRNA-seq data from COVID-19 patients with different levels of severity. We found that genes of the Malaria pathway expressed in macrophages are significantly differentially regulated between patients with moderate and severe symptoms. Our findings help reveal the mechanisms of action of CQ and HCQ during SARS-CoV-2 infection, providing new evidence to support the use of these antimalarial drugs in the treatment of COVID-19, especially for patients who are mildly affected or in the early stage of the infection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    James J. Cai & Daniel Osorio

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    James J. Cai

Authors
  1. James J. Cai
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  2. Daniel Osorio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James J. Cai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Sumit Kumar Jha

  2. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Ion Măndoiu

  3. University of Connecticut, Storrs Mansfield, CT, USA

    Sanguthevar Rajasekaran

  4. Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Roswell, GA, USA

    Pavel Skums

  5. Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Alex Zelikovsky

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Cai, J.J., Osorio, D. (2021). Single-Cell Gene Regulatory Network Analysis Reveals Potential Mechanisms of Action of Antimalarials Against SARS-CoV-2. In: Jha, S.K., Măndoiu, I., Rajasekaran, S., Skums, P., Zelikovsky, A. (eds) Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences. ICCABS 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12686. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79290-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79290-9_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-79289-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-79290-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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