Journal: Nature Chemical Biology
Article Title: Engineered ACE2 decoy mitigates lung injury and death induced by SARS-CoV-2 variants
doi: 10.1038/s41589-021-00965-6
Figure Lengend Snippet: a , mRNA expression of ACE2 (NM_001371415.1) and TMPRSS2 (NM_001135099) in human lung epithelial A549 cells. A549 cells stably expressing hACE2 and hLMVECs were analyzed by one-step RT–PCR (top) and real-time PCR (bottom). Relative expression was normalized to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase expression. b , Cultured hACE2-A549 cells, A549 cells and hLMVECs were preincubated with sACE2 2 -IgG1 or sACE2 2 .v2.4-IgG1 at 5 µg ml −1 or 25 µg ml −1 for 1 h. SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus (MOI = 0.1) was added to the cells, which were collected at 24 h. Virus entry was evaluated by luciferase activity. n = 4 replicates. c , A dose of 10 mg kg −1 sACE2 2 -IgG1, sACE2 2 .v2.4-IgG1 or buffer (PBS + 0.2% BSA) was administrated intravenously into K18-hACE2 transgenic mice for 30 min before SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus (10 6 PFU) intraperitoneal injection. Tissue lysates were prepared at 24 h and virus entry in the selected organs was evaluated by luciferase activity. Buffer was applied as the control group, n = 4. d – g , K18-hACE2 transgenic mice were inoculated with the SARS-CoV-2 isolate WA-1/2020 at 1 × 10 4 PFU. Mice received control PBS or sACE2 2 .v2.4-IgG1 10 mg kg −1 via intravenous injection 12 h before inoculation. Mice were observed for survival ( d ) and body weight ( e ), n = 5. EBA as a marker of pulmonary endothelial permeability ( f ) and lung wet/dry ratio ( g ) as a measure of lung edema were quantified. Data are presented as the mean ± s.e.m., n = 4. b , c , f , g , P values were calculated by one-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test.
Article Snippet: Plasmids for the expression of myc-tagged human ACE2 (pCEP4-myc-ACE2, plasmid no. 141185; Addgene), 8 histidine-tagged monomeric sACE2 (ACE2 amino acids 1–615; pcDNA3-sACE2(WT)-8his, plasmid no. 149268 and pcDNA3-sACE2v2.4-8his, plasmid no. 149664; Addgene), SARS-CoV-1 S protein with C-terminal C9 tag (pcDNA3.1-SARS-spike, plasmid no. 145031; Addgene), 8his-tagged RBD (pcDNA3-SARS-CoV-2-S-RBD-8his, plasmid no. 145145; Addgene) and human IgG1-Fc fused dimeric sACE2 2 (ACE2 amino acids 1–732; pcDNA3-sACE2-WT(732)-IgG1, plasmid no. 154104 and pcDNA3-sACE2v2.4(732)-IgG1, plasmid no. 154106; Addgene) have been described previously.
Techniques: Expressing, Stable Transfection, One Step RT-PCR, Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Cell Culture, Virus, Luciferase, Activity Assay, Transgenic Assay, Injection, Control, Marker, Permeability