SARS-CoV-2 targets glial cells in human cortical organoids.
Stem Cell Reports
; 16(5): 1156-1164, 2021 05 11.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1225409
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have manifested a variety of neurological complications, and there is still much to reveal regarding the neurotropism of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Human stem cell-derived brain organoids offer a valuable in vitro approach to study the cellular effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the brain. Here we used human embryonic stem cell-derived cortical organoids to investigate whether SARS-CoV-2 could infect brain tissue in vitro and found that cortical organoids could be infected at low viral titers and within 6 h. Importantly, we show that glial cells and cells of the choroid plexus were preferentially targeted in our model, but not neurons. Interestingly, we also found expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in SARS-CoV-2 infected cells; however, viral replication and cell death involving DNA fragmentation does not occur. We believe that our model is a tractable platform to study the cellular effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in brain tissue.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Organoids
/
Neuroglia
/
Choroid Plexus
/
Human Embryonic Stem Cells
/
COVID-19
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Stem Cell Reports
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.stemcr.2021.01.016
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS