Host-virus chimeric events in SARS-CoV2 infected cells are infrequent and artifactual.

ABSTRACT: Pathogenic mechanisms underlying severe SARS-CoV2 infection remain largely unelucidated. High throughput sequencing technologies that capture genome and transcriptome information are key approaches to gain detailed mechanistic insights from infected cells. These techniques readily detect both pathogen and host-derived sequences, providing a means of studying host-pathogen interactions. Recent studies have reported the presence of host-virus chimeric (HVC) RNA in RNA-seq data from SARS-CoV2 infected cells and interpreted these findings as evidence of viral integration in the human genome as a potential pathogenic mechanism. Since SARS-CoV2 is a positive sense RNA virus that replicates in the cytoplasm it does not have a nuclear phase in its life cycle, it is biologically unlikely to be in a

SUBMITTER: Yan B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7899447 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature