Pro-inflammatory activity of SARS-CoV-2 viral peptide-dsRNA complex on human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMVEC)

To investigate how SARS-CoV-2 viral peptides alter the immune sensing program in HDMVEC, we treated HDMVEC with SARS-CoV-2 viral peptide-dsRNA complex (xenoAMP(S)-dsRNA), Control(S)-dsRNA, dsRNA only or their associated controls. Control(S) was the homolog sequence of xenoAMP(S) from low pathogenic human coronavirus-OC43(HCoV-OC43). The gene expression profiles in the stimulated HDMVEC were analyzed with RNA sequencing. Overall design: HDMVECs were treated with SARS-CoV-2 viral peptide-dsRNA complex (xenoAMP(S)-dsRNA), Control(S)-dsRNA, dsRNA only or their associated controls for 24 hours. Poly(I:C) was used as the synthetic analog of dsRNA. The Poly(I:C) concentration in corresponding groups was 2.5µg/mL. The mRNA was extracted and counted. Differential gene expression profile of xenoAMP(S)-dsRNA complex-treated cells were compared with dsRNA only-treated cells.