TMBIM6, A Potential Virus Target Protein Identified by Integrated Multiomics Data Analysis in SARS-CoV-2-Infected Host Cells

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and has rapidly swept the globe. There is an urgent need to understand the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 in the host and to accelerate the development of antiviral drugs. In this study, we collected open access data to thoroughly analyze the mechanisms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that apoptosis-related pathways were enriched in the cells after SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the results of differential expression analysis showed that biological functions related to endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) and lipid metabolism were disordered. TMBIM6 was identified as a potential target for SARS-CoV-2 in host cells through weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) of the time course of expression of host and viral proteins. The expression and related functions of TMBIM6 were subsequently analyzed to illuminate how viral proteins interfere with the physiological function of host cells. The potential function of viral proteins was further analyzed by GEne Network Inference with Ensemble of trees (GENIE3). This study identified TMBIM6 as a target protein associated with the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2, which might provide a novel therapeutic approach for COVID-19 in the future.Finding Statement: This research was supported by grants from the NSFC‐Guangdong Joint Foundation of China (U1601225), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81971895), and the Key Scientific and Technological Program of Guangzhou City (201607020016). Declaration of Interests: All the authors declare that they have no competing interests.