Down Regulation of Long Noncoding RNA MALAT1 and EZH2 Reduces SARS-CoV-2 Entry to Human Lung Cells

Abstract

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), longer than 200 nucleotides without the potential for coding protein, has been observed during diverse viral infections to human. It is unclear whether lncRNAs and lncRNA related transcription factors deregulate the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the human host. During SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro, expression level of metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) was significantly downregulated. To identify the role of MALAT1 during SARS-CoV-2 infection, MALAT1 was experimentally downregulated MALAT1 using siRNA system in a human lung cancer, Calu-3. As a result, I found that MALAT1 knock down reduced the SARS-CoV-2 viral replication. Moreover, I attested if inhibited enhancer of zeste 2 (EZH2), the enzymatic subunit of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) could reduce the SARS-CoV-2 viral replication. Finally, I propose that downregulated TMPRSS2 by EZH2 inhibitor successfully reduces SARS-CoV-2 viral infection. In conclusion, both downregulated MALAT1 and EZH2 inhibition could reduce TMPRSS2 expression, resulting in reduced SARS-CoV-2 infection.