Study of helicobacter pylori and SARS- CoV-2 co-infection in colon cell line- HT-29

Abstract

The Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel β-coronavirus, is the main pathogenic agent of the rapidly spreading pandemic called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Despite the pneumonia-like viral symptoms including cough, fever, sore throat, many hospitalized patients reported gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms like diarrhoea, abdominal pain, anorexia, vomiting as side-effect of viral infection. Researchers link these symptoms to co-infection of SARS-CoV 2 virus with gut microbiome, leading to gut dysbiosis. Thus, microbial co infection in gut augment the infection cycle of the virus and the occurrence, development and symptoms of COVID-19. Our work aims to decipher the molecular mechanism involved in the severity posed by co-infection of gut pathogens and SARS-CoV-2. We have used colon carcinoma cell line HT 29 in our study. The results show increase in the inflammatory molecules at transcript and protein level. Further investigation of cell death pathways reveal a necrosis like cell death in the co-infected cells. Study of apoptotic and necrotic markers (Caspase-3, Caspase-8 and RIP-1) shows incease in the level of necroptotic marker RIP-1 in the co-infected cells. The infection and co-infection also damage the mitochondria in the HT-29 cells. Our study show the possible mechanism involved in co-infection mediated severity in colon cells. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Helicobacter pylori, co-infection, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, necroptosis