Genome-wide screening of SARS-CoV-2 infection-related genes based on the blood leucocyte sequencing dataset of patients with COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global epidemic disease caused by a novel virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing serious adverse effects on human health. In this study, we collected the blood leucocyte sequencing dataset of COVID-19 patients from the GEO database and obtained differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We further analysed these DEGs by protein–protein interaction analysis and Gene Ontology enrichment analysis and obtained the DEGs closely related to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Then, we constructed a 6-gene model (comprising IFIT3, OASL, USP18, XAF1, IFI27 and EPSTI1) by logistic regression analysis and calculated the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the diagnosis of COVID-19. The AUC values of the training group, testing group and entire group were 0.930, 0.914 and 0.921, respectively. The six genes were highly expressed in patients with COVID-19 and positively correlated with the expression of SARS-CoV-2 invasion-related genes (ACE2, TMPRSS2, CTSB and CTSL). The risk score calculated by this model was also positively correlated with the expression of TMPRSS2, CTSB and CTSL, indicating that the six genes were closely related to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In conclusion, we comprehensively analysed the functions of DEGs in the blood leucocytes of patients with COVID-19 and constructed a 6-gene model that may contribute to the diagnosis of COVID-19, which contributes to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic ideas for COVID-19. Moreover, these six genes may be the therapeutic targets for COVID-19.