Identification of potential biomarkers and inhibitors in SARS-CoV-2 infected macaques

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the infection with SARS-CoV-2 has overwhelmed many health systems globally. Our study is to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the associated biological pathways of COVID-19 to elucidate the potential pathogenesis and metabolism. The gene expression profile of the GSE155363 dataset was originally produced using the high-throughput Illumina HiSeq 4000 (Macaca mulatta). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed to discover their functional categories and biochemical pathways. The results suggested that four biological pathways: Fatty acid elongation, Biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, Fatty acid metabolism, and Ribosome were mostly involved in the macaques with COVID-19. Thus, our study provides novel insights into the underlying pathogenesis of COVID-19.