COVID-19: Identifying Metabolite Biomarkers in Human Coronavirus infected Primary Human Lung Cultures
EMSL Project ID
51622
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV 2) is the causative agent of coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is responsible for the first recorded human coronavirus pandemic. Despite sharing ~ 80% of their genomic sequence, 2002 SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV 2 have very different rates of transmission and mortality. To date very little is understood about SARS-CoV 2 replication in human lung cells preventing the identification of treatment regimens in the current global crisis. Both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV 2 are believed to have emerged following zoonotic transmission events between bats and intermediate animal reservoirs (civet cats and possibly pangolins) and humans. Currently, it is not possible to predict pathogen induced disease severity simply by looking at genetic sequence. We hypothesize that the biomolecular response of appropriate host cells to infection will be more predictive of disease severity and that there is a finite number of ways a cell can respond to infection, and that with sufficient data and application of machine learning/artificial intelligence, these cellular response pathways can be characterized and catalogued, making it possible to predict the effects of a novel pathogen by observing its effects on host cells. We are requesting funds to analyze and characterize the metabolites that are differentially expressed following human coronavirus infection of primary human lung epithelial cell cultures. We predict that understanding cellular networks critical to host-pathogen interactions will point toward effective therapeutics for novel agents.
Project Details
Project type
Limited Scope
Start Date
2021-04-01
End Date
2022-06-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members