Where All the Roads Meet? A Cross Over Perspective on Host Factors Regulating SARS-CoV-2 Replication

Abstract
In the recent issue of Cell, four studies utilized genome wide CRISPR/Cas screens to identify host factors critical for the SARS-CoV-2 replication. We performed a comparative analysis of significant host factors (p<0.05) that were identified in these studies and found that fifteen candidates were common in at least three studies. Apart from ACE2 other common host factors included COG3, COG8, GDI2, ARPP19, SLC35B2, LIMA1, TLR9, VPS26A, CSNK2B, LRRN2, DDX51, ALG6, C1QTNF7 and BCOR. Interestingly, some of these host factors have been shown to be critical for other viruses including HIV-1, Dengue, Influenza, Zika etc., suggesting their crucial role in viral biology. Additionally, viral interactome of these host factors revealed that they were associated with several SARS-CoV-2 proteins as well. Hence, we present here, a comparative analysis of four genome wide screens against SARS-CoV-2, revealing common host factors that could be modulated to regulate SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses as well.