RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Human iPS cell-derived sensory neurons can be infected by SARS-CoV-2 strain WA1/2020 as well as variants delta and omicron
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.01.10.523422
DO 10.1101/2023.01.10.523422
A1 Flamier, Anthony
A1 Bisht, Punam
A1 Richards, Alexsia
A1 Tomasello, Danielle
A1 Jaenisch, Rudolf
YR 2023
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/10/2023.01.10.523422.abstract
AB COVID-19 has impacted billions of people in the world since 2019 and unfolded a major healthcare crisis. With an increasing number of deaths and the emergence of more transmissible variants, it is crucial to better understand the biology of the disease-causing virus, the SARS-CoV-2. Peripheral neuropathies appeared as a specific COVID-19 symptom occurring at later stages of the disease. In order to understand the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the peripheral nervous system, we generated human sensory neurons from induced pluripotent stem cells that we infected with the SARS-CoV-2 strain WA1/2020 and the variants delta and omicron. Using single cell RNA sequencing, we found that human sensory neurons can be infected by SARS-CoV-2 but are unable to produce new viruses. Our data suggests that sensory neurons can be infected by the original WA1/2020 strain of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the delta and omicron variants.Competing Interest StatementR.J. is an advisor/co-founder of Fate Therapeutics, Fulcrum Therapeutics, Omega Therapeutics, and Dewpoint Therapeutics. A.F. is a co-founder and shareholder of StemAxon. All other authors declare no competing interests.