SARSCOVIDB─A New Platform for the Analysis of the Molecular Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Infection

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has become a global emergency issue for public health. This threat has led to an acceleration in related research and, consequently, an unprecedented volume of clinical and experimental data that include changes in gene expression resulting from infection. The SARS-CoV-2 infection database (SARSCOVIDB: https://sarscovidb.org/) was created to mitigate the difficulties related to this scenario. The SARSCOVIDB is an online platform that aims to integrate all differential gene expression data, at messenger RNA and protein levels, helping to speed up analysis and research on the molecular impact of COVID-19. The database can be searched from different experimental perspectives and presents all related information from published data, such as viral strains, hosts, methodological approaches (proteomics or transcriptomics), genes/proteins, and samples (clinical or experimental). All information was taken from 24 articles related to analyses of differential gene expression out of 5,554 COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2-related articles published so far. The database features 12,535 genes whose expression has been identified as altered due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thus, the SARSCOVIDB is a new resource to support the health workers and the scientific community in understanding the pathogenesis and molecular impact caused by SARS-CoV-2.