GENE EXPRESSION DATA ANALYSIS SUGGESTS MALE GERM CELL ASSOCIATED KINASE (MAK) MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH COVID-19 SEVERITY IN MEN VIA INTERFERON SIGNALING

Introduction: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and prostate cancer are known to have the same comorbidities. Prostate cancer patients are also known to have a mortality risk and hospitalization risk in COVID-19. Lately, co-expression between the androgen receptor and the viral entry receptor TMPRSS2 has been reported. Activation of the androgen receptor pathway may be associated with the severity of COVID19 patients. Method: The microarray data were taken from the GEO database (GSE 164805 and GPL26963 platform). Dataset creation and gene expression analysis were performed using Orange Data-mining version 3.30 Protein-Protein interaction (PPi) analysis was performed using STRING database with a confidence score >0.4. Result: The means of MAK expression was distinguishable between a combined group of healthy controls (HC) and mild COVID-19 and severe COVID-19 (p≤0.01). There was no significant difference in the number of androgen receptors (AR) between mild and severe COVID-19 and HC (p=0.187). The expression of interferon related genes (IFNAR1, IFI6, TMPRSS2, IFIT1, and IFIT3) were shown to be different between mild and severe COVID-19 and HC. The PPi results showed a significant difference in STAT5A expression between mild and severe COVID-19 and HC (p≤0.01). Conclusion: MAK and other genes/proteins that affect AR activity and signaling were shown to be the potential targets for therapy for SARS-CoV-2 infection.