Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 infection in astrocytes

Discovered in late 2019 in a market in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, SARS-CoV-2 is an important member of the Coronaviridae family, responsible for bringing the whole world into a state of alert causing a global pandemic. The virus has been identified as causing a characteristic clinical condition known as "Corona-virus disease 2019" (COVID-19), causing an Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Being a respiratory virus, transmitted by direct contact with an infected person and by touching contaminated surfaces, SARS-CoV-2 quickly spread throughout the world, causing a pandemic, having today more than 535 million people infected and causing more than million deaths. In addition to the respiratory system, the virus is present in other cells in the body. Findings show the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in cerebrospinal fluid associated with changes in the expression of neuronal inflammation markers, as well as an increased expression of cytokines released by astrocytes, indicating an alteration in the Central Nervous System (CNS). In this project, we analyzed the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection directly on astrocytes, glial cells that are extremely important for the maintenance of homeostasis and CNS defense. Therefore, we produced astrocytes from three human iPSC strains to verify aspects of cell morphology and physiology, as well as gene and protein expression, after infection with the virus. We found that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting astrocytes, but some studies are still needed to better elucidate its role in the interaction with this cell type in the CNS.

COVID-19 entry

This editorial provides a brief information on how the coronavirus initially enters into the central nervous system (CNS) via the synaptic route followed by first capturing the Peripheral nerves, where trans-synaptic transfer in avian bronchitis and HEV67 virus. It has been observed in the study that SARS-CoV possess ananalogous potential with SARS-CoV-2, and both are highly similar. The mechanism about the entry of coronavirus into the nose, invade in CNS through olfactory bulb while nasal infection which leads to cause demyelination and inflammation, Further it reaches to the whole brain via Barrier of Blood-Brain and CSF via Blood-CSF barrier within 7 days which leads to respiratory disease due to the inability of air into the lungs as the defects in respiration controlled by the nervous systemand patients show symptoms like neurologic signs. According to theepidemiology study, the first symptom is dyspnoea which shows within 5 days, followed by admission in hospital at 7 days and intensive care at 8 days for SARS-CoV-2 and this latency period is sufficient for the virus to enter into CNS and destroy the medullary neurons which further causes respiratory problems.