Fig. 1

Prediction of harmful SARS-CoV-2 viral genes for human cardiomyocytes. A Coding genes annotation of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. B Strategies to predict the potential interactions between SARS-CoV-2 encoded proteins and essential proteins highly expressed in human cardiomyocytes. C Stable hPSC cell lines with overexpression of 3 SARS-CoV-2 genes by lentivirus were established and followed with CM differentiation and functional analyses. OE, overexpression. D RT-PCR detection of Nsp6, Nsp8, and M expression levels in hESC-derived CMs. E RT-qPCR detection of ACE2, TMPRSS2, TMPRSS4 and the cardiomyocyte marker CTNT during cardiac differentiation from hESCs. RNA samples were collected every 2 days from day 0 to day 10 of differentiation. Beating CMs were observed on day 8. All dots are shown as mean ± SD (n = 3). F Gene expression profiles of SARS-CoV-2 viral receptor genes ACE2, TMPRSS2/4, and cardiomyocyte markers NKX2.5, MYH6, CTNT in hESC-derived cardiomyocytes based on our previously published scRNA-seq data [34]. G SARS-CoV-2 Spike pseudotyped lentivirus carrying a GFP reporter was used to infect hESC-CMs. H Flow cytometry analysis of GFP⁺ hESC-CMs after infection with SARS-CoV-2 Spike pseudotyped lentivirus carrying a GFP reporter. 48 h post-infection, flow cytometry was performed to detect GFP⁺ cells. CMs without virus infection served as control. All bars are shown as mean ± SD. (n = 3). A two-tailed unpaired t test was used to calculate p values. *p < 0.05 (vs. no virus)