A virus-specific monocyte inflammatory phenotype is induced by SARS-CoV2 at the immune-epithelial interface

RNAseq analysis of human immune cells (monocytes CD14+ and B cells CD19+) cocultured with SARS-CoV2, influenza A or Ebola viruses-infected epithelial cells as well as directly infected or SARS-CoV2 single protein transfected epithelial cells To assess whether and how immunocytes are triggered by SARS-CoV2-infected cells, we established a co-culture model in which ex vivo blood immunocytes were placed in direct contact with virus-infected epithelial cells or SARS-CoV2 single protein transfected epithelial cells. We used as a virus SARS-CoV2 and two other relevant viruses for comparison : influenza A virus and Ebola virus. Thirty-five hours after viral infection of the Caco-2 monolayer, unbound virus was removed and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy donors (HD) were added to the cultures. These were harvested 14 h later, and subpopulations (epithelial cells, CD45+CD19+ and CD45+CD14+) were magnetically purified for transcriptome profiling by RNAseq. We used the same coculture model to assess the role of individual SARS-CoV2 proteins : Caco-2 cells were transfected, in biological duplicates, with a panel of 27 plasmids encoding single viral proteins or GFP as a control; Forty-eight hour later, these transfectants were co-cultured with HD PBMCs, and the monocytes as well as the transfected epithelial cells were profiled by RNAseq after 14 h. Please note that the records have been updated with two additional samples, along with the updated Genes_count_table.tsv file on Dec 12, 2022.