Fig. 9: Overview of intracellular and intercellular signalling upon SARS-CoV-2 infection of colonic and ileal immature enterocytes and resident immune cells.
From: Mapping the epithelial–immune cell interactome upon infection in the gut and the upper airways
SARS-CoV-2 directly infects colonic and ileal immature enterocytes. Upon infection, transcription factors ATF2/3, JUN, FOS, STAT1 and NFKB1 are modulated, resulting in altered intracellular signalling pathways and altered ligands expression, including upregulation of chemokines (CXCLs) and human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), and downregulation of laminins (LAMB/Cs). Altered ligands expression drives differential intercellular interactions between epithelial ligands and immune cell receptors (chemokine receptors (CXCRs), killer cell lectin-like receptors (KLRs) and integrins (ITGs)) expressed on immune cells.
