Porcine angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 serves as an auxiliary receptor to enhance transmissible gastroenteritis virus invasion and replication

Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) is one of the major pathogen causing swine diarrhea, inducing acute severe atrophic enteritis and lethal watery diarrhea in neonatal piglets with up to 100 % mortality, resulting in significant economic losses to the swine industry. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is known as an invasion receptor for SARS-CoV-2, but its role in TGEV infection remains unclear, and the current understanding of TGEV infection mechanisms is incomplete. In this study, we identified an important role for porcine ACE2 (pACE2) in TGEV infection. Firstly, pACE2 expression was highest in the jejunum of 7-day-old piglets among different age groups, and immunohistochemistry showed that pACE2 is primarily distributed in the apical region of intestinal villi. Functional experiments demonstrated that both inhibition and knockout of pACE2 reduced TGEV replication. Further studies found that both ACE2 inhibitor DX600 and anti-pACE2 specific antibodies (blocking cell surface pACE2) suppressed TGEV invasion. Consistently, pACE2 knockout inhibited early TGEV infection, while pACE2 replenishment enhanced it. Mechanistically, co-immunoprecipitation confirmed an interaction between pACE2 and TGEV-S1, and bioinformatics modeling of the pACE2-TGEV-S1-RBD interface predicted a strong binding tendency between the two proteins. Point mutation assays identified pACE2’s Q556 as a critical residue for this interaction. In contrast, human ACE2 (hACE2) had no significant effect on TGEV invasion. Additionally, pACE2’s promotion of TGEV invasion was found to be pAPN-dependent, further confirming pAPN as the primary invasion receptor for TGEV. Collectively, our study indicates that pAPN is the primary receptor mediating TGEV infection, while pACE2 functions as an auxiliary receptor dependent on pAPN to facilitate TGEV infection.