Abstract
The upper respiratory tract is compromised in the early period of COVID-19, but SARS-CoV-2 tropism at the cellular level is not fully defined. Unlike recent single-cell RNA-Seq analyses indicating uniformly low mRNA expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry-related host molecules in all nasal epithelial cells, we show that the protein levels are relatively high and that their localizations are restricted to the apical side of multiciliated epithelial cells. In addition, we provide evidence in patients with COVID-19 that SARS-CoV-2 is massively detected and replicated within the multiciliated cells. We observed these findings during the early stage of COVID-19, when infected ciliated cells were rapidly replaced by differentiating precursor cells. Moreover, our analyses revealed that SARS-CoV-2 cellular tropism was restricted to the nasal ciliated versus oral squamous epithelium. These results imply that targeting ciliated cells of the nasal epithelium during the early stage of COVID-19 could be an ideal strategy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 propagation.
Keywords: COVID-19; Infectious disease; Molecular pathology.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Infectious disease, Molecular pathology, 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, pathology, nasal, Infectious disease, cells, epithelial cells, respiratory, Molecular pathology, upper respiratory tract, early stage, single-cell, cellular, Evidence, Analysis, ciliated cells, ciliated cell, squamous epithelium, REPLACED BY, apical side, Nasal Epithelial cells, SARS-CoV-2 propagation, nasal epithelium, precursor, protein level, protein levels, mRNA expression, cellular tropism, Prevent, host molecules, defined, addition, replaced, replicated, ciliated, host molecule, patients with COVID-19, 【제목키워드】 target, SARS-CoV-2 replication, ciliated cell,