Before revision:  Using the unique profiles of altered gene expression found in NHBE, A549_ACE2 and Calu3 human lung epithelial cells after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, we conducted a computational analysis to identify dysfunctional signaling pathways within infected cells. Using these data, potential therapeutic targets were identified and matched with existing medications to develop a theoretical approach to pharmacologic repurposing and inform clinical trial decisions. Specifically, signaling pathways upregulated by SARS-CoV-2 infection and their associated gene ontologies (GOs) were extracted and clustered to generate 10 super-GOs.
After revision:  Using the unique profiles of altered gene expression found in NHBE, A549_ACE2 and Calu3 human lung epithelial cells after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, we conducted a computational analysis to identify dysfunctional signaling pathways within the host cells, and drugs targeting these molecular signaling pathways could be potentially effective for COVID-19 treatment. In this study, we aimed to identify these potential molecular signaling pathways, and repurpose existing drugs as a potentially effective treatment of COVID-19 to facilitate the therapeutic discovery, based on the transcriptional response of host cells. We first identified dysfunctional signaling pathways associated with the infection caused SARS-CoV-2 infection and their associated gene ontologies (GOs) were extracted and clustered to generate 10 super-GOs.