Development of new genetic markers of SARS-CoV-2 -associated genomic instability and approaches to its regulation

Interindividual variations in the pathogenesis of COVID-19 disease hinder the development of effective treatment methods. To make progress in this area, it is important to assess the contribution of molecular and cellular markers to the pathogenesis of COVID-19. In particular, the roles of DNA damage and repair in infected cells and extracellular DNA in blood plasma during the pathogenesis of COVID-19 are poorly studied. In the frames of the proposed project, it is planned to analyze DNA damage and repair, apoptosis and extracellular DNA in the blood of patients with COVID-19 with varying degrees of disease severity․ The visualization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using recently developed FISH probes will be performed. The potential genotoxic effects of SARS-CoV-2 are planned to be minimized using the known antioxidants and antimutagens quercetin, genistein, and apigenin, which are capable of targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins. Thus, as a result of the project, new sensitive genetic markers of COVID-19 infection and methods for regulating SARS-CoV-2-induced genomic instability will be proposed․