Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infects and Damages the Mature and Immature Olfactory Sensory Neurons of Hamsters

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissionsoup.com..

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is primarily an acute respiratory tract infection. Distinctively, a substantial proportion of COVID-19 patients develop olfactory dysfunction. Especially in young patients, loss of smell can be the first or only symptom. The roles of inflammatory obstruction of the olfactory clefts, inflammatory cytokines affecting olfactory neuronal function, destruction of olfactory neurons or their supporting cells, and direct invasion of olfactory bulbs in causing olfactory dysfunction are uncertain.

METHODS: We investigated the location for the pathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from the olfactory epithelium (OE) to the olfactory bulb in golden Syrian hamsters.

RESULTS: After intranasal inoculation with SARS-CoV-2, inflammatory cell infiltration and proinflammatory cytokine/chemokine responses were detected in the nasal turbinate tissues. The responses peaked between 2 and 4 days postinfection, with the highest viral load detected at day 2 postinfection. In addition to the pseudo-columnar ciliated respiratory epithelial cells, SARS-CoV-2 viral antigens were also detected in the mature olfactory sensory neurons labeled by olfactory marker protein, in the less mature olfactory neurons labeled by neuron-specific class III β-tubulin at the more basal position, and in the sustentacular cells, resulting in apoptosis and severe destruction of the OE. During the entire course of infection, SARS-CoV-2 viral antigens were not detected in the olfactory bulb.

CONCLUSIONS: In addition to acute inflammation at the OE, infection of mature and immature olfactory neurons and the supporting sustentacular cells by SARS-CoV-2 may contribute to the unique olfactory dysfunction related to COVID-19, which is not reported with SARS-CoV-2.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:73

Enthalten in:

Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America - 73(2021), 2 vom: 15. Juli, Seite e503-e512

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Zhang, Anna Jinxia [VerfasserIn]
Lee, Andrew Chak-Yiu [VerfasserIn]
Chu, Hin [VerfasserIn]
Chan, Jasper Fuk-Woo [VerfasserIn]
Fan, Zhimeng [VerfasserIn]
Li, Can [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Feifei [VerfasserIn]
Chen, Yanxia [VerfasserIn]
Yuan, Shuofeng [VerfasserIn]
Poon, Vincent Kwok-Man [VerfasserIn]
Chan, Chris Chung-Sing [VerfasserIn]
Cai, Jian-Piao [VerfasserIn]
Wu, Kenneth Lap-Kei [VerfasserIn]
Sridhar, Siddharth [VerfasserIn]
Chan, Ying-Shing [VerfasserIn]
Yuen, Kwok-Yung [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

COVID-19
Hamster
Journal Article
Olfactory neuron
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
SARS-CoV-2

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 20.07.2021

Date Revised 20.07.2021

published: Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1093/cid/ciaa995

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM312444265