fgene-12-622271 February 15, 2021 Time: 18:36 # 1 ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 19 February 2021 doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.622271 SARS-CoV-2 Infection-Induced Promoter Hypomethylation as an Epigenetic Modulator of Heat Shock Protein A1L (HSPA1L) Gene Jibran Sualeh Muhammad1,2*†, Narjes Saheb Sharif-Askari2, Zheng-Guo Cui3, Mawieh Hamad2,4 and Rabih Halwani2,5,6*† 1 Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2 Sharjah Institute for Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 3 Department of Environmental Health, University of Fukui School of Medical Science, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan, 4 Department of Medical Laboratory Edited by: Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 5 Department of Clinical Rui Henrique, Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 6 Prince Abdullah Ben Khaled Celiac Portuguese Oncology Institute, Disease Research Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Portugal Reviewed by: Numerous researches have focused on the genetic variations affecting SARS-CoV-2 Renata Zofia Jurkowska, Cardiff University, United Kingdom infection, whereas the epigenetic effects are inadequately described. In this report, for Yi Huang, the first time, we have identified potential candidate genes that might be regulated University of Pittsburgh, United States via SARS-CoV-2 induced DNA methylation changes in COVID-19 infection. At first, *Correspondence: Jibran Sualeh Muhammad in silico transcriptomic data of COVID-19 lung autopsies were used to identify the
[email protected] top differentially expressed genes containing CpG Islands in their promoter region.