Tunneling nanotubes provide a route for SARS-CoV-2 spreading.

ABSTRACT: Neurological manifestations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection represent a major issue in long coronavirus disease. How SARS-CoV-2 gains access to the brain and how infection leads to neurological symptoms are not clear because the principal means of viral entry by endocytosis, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, are barely detectable in the brain. We report that human neuronal cells, nonpermissive to infection through the endocytic pathway, can be infected when cocultured with permissive infected epithelial cells. SARS-CoV-2 induces the formation of tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) and exploits this route to spread to uninfected cells. In cellulo correlative fluorescence and cryo-electron tomography reveal that SARS-CoV-2 is associated with TNTs

SUBMITTER: Pepe A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9299553 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature