Interferon (IFN) is emerging as a promising therapeutic for COVID-19. Yet it was also proposed that IFN induces transcription of the SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor ACE2, potentially increasing viral infectivity. In this preprint, Onabajo et al. show that it is actually a shorter transcript of ACE2, coined dACE2, that was previously detected by RNA sequencing upon exposure to IFN. Expression of dACE2, but not the canonical ACE2, is induced by viral infection as well as treatment with type I, II and III IFNs. dACE2 is also highly expressed in several tumour tissues, owing to an inflamed microenvironment that resembles virus-infected tissues. Importantly, dACE2 cannot bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor-binding domain and lacks carboxypeptidase activity, dispelling concerns that IFN treatment might enhance viral infection.
References
Original article
Onabajo, O. O. et al. Interferons and viruses induce a novel primate-specific isoform dACE2 and not the SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.19.210955 (2020)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Saffern, M. ACE2 is not induced by interferon. Nat Rev Immunol 20, 521 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-020-00416-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-020-00416-8