SPEG and COVID-19: To this end, both in single cell and bulk RNAseq analysis, SPEG is specifically expressed in heart cardiomyocytes, and upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, SPEG is up-regulated in cardiomyocytes, with only statistically significant upregulation of SPEG in COVID-19 females but not in COVID-19 males compared to either female or male healthy controls at both sample level and single cell level analyses.