NIH: SARS-CoV-2 can continue to infect multiple organs throughout the body and even the brain!

COVID-19 is known to cause multiple organ dysfunction in acute infection, and some patients with COVID-19 experience long-term symptoms known as acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC)

This article is published online in Research Square, a series of journals in Nature that has partnered with Research Square to provide a preprint preview of the journal integration

We first used droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to quantify viral RNA levels in whole body and brain samples from 11 postmortem COVID-19 patients and found that tissues throughout the body contained 0.

As an RNA virus, SARS-CoV-2 enters host cells to replicate genomic RNA and produce many smaller RNAs, called subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs)

Viral sgRNAs synthesize various proteins (spike proteins, envelope proteins, etc.

Immunohistochemical microscopy of cerebellar slices found SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins in the molecular layer, granular layer, and white matter of the cerebellum

Finally, using high-throughput, single-genome amplification and sequencing (HT-SGS), we identified the diversity and anatomical distribution of SARS-CoV-2 spine mutants in six dead individuals

Original text retrieval: SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence throughout the human body and brain