Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7), a severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus’s nucleic acid sensor, was discovered to be aberrantly expressed in many types of cancers. However, its expression pattern across cancers and association with COVID-19 (or its causing virus SARS-CoV-2) has not been systematically studied.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was a disease mainly characterized by damage to the respiratory system caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Recent studies suggest that cancer was a risk factor for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

In this study, the authors of this article propose a computational framework to comprehensively study the roles of TLR7 in COVID-19 and pan-cancers at genetic, gene expression, protein, epigenetic, and single-cell levels. As a result, TLR7 expression was found to be higher in the lung of mice infected with SARS-CoV-2 than that in the control group.

This study reveals the roles of TLR7, a nucleic acid sensor for COVID-19 in pan-cancer. These findings might be necessary for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and alleviating cytokine storms in infected cancer patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; TLR7; Pan-cancer; SARS-CoV-2; Prognosis


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CiteScore: 4.8
ISSN 2590-0536

Full bibliographic information

Published on 17/08/2023 by Compuscript Ltd
Authors: Zhijian Huang, Yaoxin Gao, Yuanyuan Han, Jingwen Yang, Can Yang, Shixiong Li, Decong Zhou, Qiuyan Huang, Jialiang Yang,
About: Revealing the roles of TLR7, a nucleic acid sensor for COVID-19 in pan-cancer, Biosafety and Health, 2023, ISSN 2590-0536,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bsheal.2023.05.004