ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Translational Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1654555
RNA Sequencing Reveals Transcriptional Signatures of Drug Response and SARS-CoV-2 Interaction in Colorectal Cancer Cells
Provisionally accepted
- 1Al Muthanna University, Samawah, Iraq
- 2University of Babylon College of Medicine, Hillah, Iraq
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This study explores the molecular impact of cisplatin, Actemra (tocilizumab), remdesivir, and SARS-CoV-2 infection on colorectal cancer (CRC) SW-480 cells using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). Differential gene expression analysis revealed treatment-specific transcriptional changes.Cisplatin led to the downregulation of genes involved in lipid metabolism and focal adhesion, while remdesivir upregulated chromatin remodeling pathways. SARS-CoV-2 infection altered cytokine signaling, particularly IL-17 and TNF-α. Principal component and hierarchical clustering analyses confirmed distinct gene expression profiles across treatments. ELISA assays validated the reduction of ACE2 and CD147 protein levels following drug treatment. MTT assays demonstrated remdesivir's cytotoxicity at high doses. These findings highlight potential drug-gene interactions and suggest that combining transcriptomic profiling with functional assays may guide personalized therapeutic strategies for CRC patients, especially those co-infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Keywords: RNA sequencing, colorectal cancer, Cisplatin, Actemra, remdesivir, SARS-CoV-2
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 K. Hameed, K. Abd Al-Shibly and A. Ghaleb. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alaa K. Hameed, Al Muthanna University, Samawah, Iraq
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