RNA-Seq Quantitative Analysis of the regulation of SARS-CoV-2 infection on autophagy and apoptosis related gene transcriptome in infected cells

In our study, we found that SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirions infection induced high levels of autophagy and apoptosis in infected cells. To further investigate the underlying regualtion of SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirions infection in infected cells, ACE2-expressing HEK293T-hACE2 and Vero E6 cells were treated with Mock or SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirions for RNA-Seq analysis to exame the expression of autophagy- and apoptosis-related genes. Our results indicate that the majority of autophagy- and apoptosis-promoting genes were significantly increased in SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirions treated HEK293T-hACE2 and Vero E6 cells. In contrast, the subset of autophagy- and apoptosis-suppressing genes was significantly decreased in SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirions-treated HEK293T-hACE2 and Vero E6 cells than Mock-treated HEK293T-hACE2 and Vero E6 cells. Meanwhile, SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirions infection enhanced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in infected cells. Examination of SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirions infected HEK293T-hACE2 and Vero E6 cells and Mock treated HEK293T-hACE2 and Vero E6 control group