Limited extent and consequences of pancreatic SARS-CoV-2 infection

Several studies have suggested a relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and diabetes. This study examined the consequences of infection of human pancreatic islets with SARS-CoV-2 virus. This GEO submission contains the raw and processed data from single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) experiments evaluating the tropism of SARS-CoV-2 in pancreatic islets and transcriptional changes induced by infection of these cells. Overall we observed limited infection of pancreatic islets (0.2 - 3.4% of all cells infected per donor) and identified multiple pancreatic cell types as targets of infection; due to the preponderance of major endocrine cell populations in our islet cell preparations, downstream analyses were primarily focused on alpha and beta cells. Within beta cells we identified an upregulation of interferon stimulated genes in both infected and bystander cells as well as an NF?B mediated genes in infected cells only. Within alpha cells we detected a non-specific downregulation of a large number of host genes in infected cells. Overall design: Pancreatic islets from three donors were infected or mock infected with SARS-CoV-2 for 48 hours then analyzed by scRNAseq.