| Autor: |
Kumari P; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Rothan HA; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Natekar JP; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Stone S; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Pathak H; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Strate PG; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Arora K; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Brinton MA; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA., Kumar M; Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA. |
| Abstrakt: |
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause neurological disease in humans, but little is known about the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the central nervous system (CNS). Herein, using K18-hACE2 mice, we demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 neuroinvasion and encephalitis is associated with mortality in these mice. Intranasal infection of K18-hACE2 mice with 10 5 plaque-forming units of SARS-CoV-2 resulted in 100% mortality by day 6 after infection. The highest virus titers in the lungs were observed on day 3 and declined on days 5 and 6 after infection. By contrast, very high levels of infectious virus were uniformly detected in the brains of all the animals on days 5 and 6. Onset of severe disease in infected mice correlated with peak viral levels in the brain. SARS-CoV-2-infected mice exhibited encephalitis hallmarks characterized by production of cytokines and chemokines, leukocyte infiltration, hemorrhage and neuronal cell death. SARS-CoV-2 was also found to productively infect cells within the nasal turbinate, eye and olfactory bulb, suggesting SARS-CoV-2 entry into the brain by this route after intranasal infection. Our data indicate that direct infection of CNS cells together with the induced inflammatory response in the brain resulted in the severe disease observed in SARS-CoV-2-infected K18-hACE2 mice. |
