Primary Human Airway Epithelial Cultures infected with SARS-CoV-2

We performed RNAseq analysis on primary human airway epithelial cultures either mock infected (PBS) or infected with SARS-CoV-2. Transcriptional profiling studies found that infected pHAE cells had a molecular signature dominated by pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokine induction, including IL-6, TNFα, CXCL8, and identified NF-κB and ATF4 as key drivers of this pro-inflammatory cytokine response. Surprisingly, we observed a lack of a type I or III interferon (IFN) response to SARS-CoV-2 infection pHAE cultures were infected apically with SARS-CoV-2 (MOI= 0.25) for 48 hours, at which point mock and SARS-CoV-2 infected (n=3) samples were harvested for bulk RNA-Seq analysis.