iScience
Volume 24, Issue 4, 23 April 2021, 102293
Journal home page for iScience

Article
ORF8 contributes to cytokine storm during SARS-CoV-2 infection by activating IL-17 pathway

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102293Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 activates IL-17 signaling pathway by interacting with host IL17RA

  • Treatment of IL17RA antibody protects mice from ORF8-induced inflammation

Summary

Recently, COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has brought great challenges to the world. More and more studies have shown that patients with severe COVID-19 may suffer from cytokine storm syndrome; however, there are few studies on its pathogenesis. Here we demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 coding protein open reading frame 8 (ORF8) acted as a contributing factor to cytokine storm during COVID-19 infection. ORF8 could activate IL-17 signaling pathway and promote the expression of pro-inflammatory factors. Moreover, we demonstrated that treatment of IL17RA antibody protected mice from ORF8-induced inflammation. Our findings are helpful to understand the pathogenesis of cytokine storm caused by SARS-CoV-2 and provide a potential target for the development of COVID-19 therapeutic drugs.

Subject areas

Biological Sciences
Microbiology
Virology

Cited by (0)

11

These authors contributed equally

12

Lead contact