Proteomic analysis identifies molecular players and biological processes specific to SARS-CoV-2 exposure in endothelial cells

In this study we investigated the global proteomic response of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) after exposure to SARS-CoV-2. For this porpouse HUVECs were incubated with SARS-CoV-2 at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 1 and after different hours post-infection (hpi) samples were submitted to the 50% tissue-culture infective dose assay (TCID50), proteomic analysis and RT-qPCR measurements.To perform the relative quantitative label-free proteomic analysis, cells exposed to SARS-CoV-2 or MOCK were submitted to protein extraction, trypsin digestion and the tryptic peptides were analyzed in a Q-Exactive mass spectrometer. Data analysis of the differently abundant proteins of each cell model revealed distinct cell responses.