Downregulation of ACE2 expression by SARS-CoV-2 worsens the prognosis of KIRC and KIRP patients via metabolism and immunoregulation.

{"sci_version": "1.2", "schema": "https://corpus.bntrg.co.uk/sci/1.0/sci.schema.json", "id": "pmid:34131396", "kind": "science-record", "revision": 6, "content_hash": "sha256:83970d80c873bd635d539dd344f9d5bd86bb0fe8b841e0227cefe6f85c5c47b7", "created_at": "2026-11-01T15:41:39Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-01T21:25:32Z", "generator": {"name": "corpus-assay-engine", "run_id": "reading-sci-2026-11-01"}, "paper": {"state": "complete", "title": "Downregulation of ACE2 expression by SARS-CoV-2 worsens the prognosis of KIRC and KIRP patients via metabolism and immunoregulation.", "doi": "10.7150/ijbs.57802", "pmid": "34131396", "authors": ["Qian Tang", "Yue Wang", "Ling Ou", "Jieling Li", "Kai Zheng", "Hui Zhan", "Jiayu Gu", "Guibao Zhou", "Shouxia Xie", "Jianping Zhang", "Wei Huang", "Shaoxiang Wang", "Xiao Wang"], "journal": "International journal of biological sciences", "year": 2021, "abstract": "Background: Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) allow entry of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) into host cells and play essential roles in cancer therapy. However, the functions of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in kidney cancer remain unclear, especially as kidneys are targets for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: UCSC Xena project, the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases (GSE30589 and GSE59185) were searched for gene expression in human tissues, gene expression data, and clinical information. Several bioinformatics methods were utilized to analyze the correlation between ACE2 and TMPRSS2 with respect to the prognosis of kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) and kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP). Results: ACE2 expression was significantly upregulated in tumor tissue, while its downregulation was associated with low survival in KIRC and KIRP patients. TMPRSS2 was downregulated in KIRC and KIRP, and its expression was not correlated with patient survival. According to clinical risk factor-based prediction models, ACE2 exhibits predictive accuracy for kidney cancer prognosis and is correlated with metabolism and immune infiltration. In an animal model, ACE2 expression was remarkably downregulated in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells compared to in the control. Conclusion: ACE2 expression is highly correlated with various metabolic pathways and is involved in immune infiltration.it plays a crucial role than TMPRSS2 in diagnosing and prognosis of kidney cancer patients. The overlap in ACE2 expression between kidney cancer and SARS-CoV-2 infection suggests that patients with KIRC or KIRP are at high risk of developing serious symptoms.", "claims": [{"id": "claim-method", "statement": "The risk scores of patients were calculated based on multivariate Cox regression using the survival package in R, using several candidate factors and the overall survival to predict patient survival.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:34131396", "locator": "sections[6] \"Survival analysis and prediction models\" paragraph 2", "quote": "The risk scores of patients were calculated based on multivariate Cox regression using the survival package in R, using several candidate factors and the overall survival to predict patient survival."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-data-access", "statement": "The gene expression data and clinical information of patients were extracted from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/).", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:34131396", "locator": "sections[3] \"Data collection\" paragraph 2", "quote": "The gene expression data and clinical information of patients were extracted from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/)."}], "state": "complete"}], "gaps": []}, "experiment": {"state": "partial", "objective": null, "steps": [{"id": "read_published_estimate", "order": 1, "name": "Read the published estimate from the source", "kind": "other", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "The claim, method and evidence span published with the source article.", "duration_hours": null, "parameters": {}, "inputs": ["source:pmid:34131396"], "outputs": ["the published estimate and its evidence"], "instruments": [], "reagents": []}, {"id": "obtain_source_data", "order": 2, "name": "Obtain the source data from the named repository", "kind": "data-preparation", "state": "blocked", "blocked_on": "data:accession_absent", "description": "The GEO series accession resolves and its sample accessions are listed. 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