Gene expression of SARS-CoV-2-infected Vero E6 cells with remdesivir treatment

RNA sequencing was performed on control and SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero E6 cells, with or without remdesivir treatment to study the biological changes after SARS-CoV-2 infection and to evaluate the effectiveness of remdesivir on the gene expression level. 500,000 Vero E6 cells were seeded in 6-well plates. The following day, the cell medium was replaced with fresh medium supplemented with either DMSO or 1 µM remdesivir, and cells were either mock-infected or infected with SARS-CoV-2 USA-WA1/2020 (MOI=0.3), with three replicates per experimental condition. Cells were harvested 24 hours after infection, and total RNA was extracted using the Qiagen® RNeasy® Plus Mini Kit. The quality of the extracted RNA was assessed with the Agilent® 2100 Bioanalyzer. Libraries were prepared from total RNA following ribosome RNA depletion using standard protocol according to Illumina®. Total RNA sequencing was then performed on the Illumina® NextSeq system; 150bp paired-end runs were performed and 100 million raw reads per sample were generated. Overall design: mRNA profiles of control (mock-infected) and 24h post-SARS-CoV-2-infection Vero E6 cells with or without 1 µM remdesivir treatment with three replicates per condition.