SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence in the human body and brain at autopsy.

ABSTRACT: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is known to cause multi-organ dysfunction^1-3 during acute infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), with some patients experiencing prolonged symptoms, termed post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (refs. ^4,5). However, the burden of infection outside the respiratory tract and time to viral clearance are not well characterized, particularly in the brain^3,6-14. Here we carried out complete autopsies on 44 patients who died with COVID-19, with extensive sampling of the central nervous system in 11 of these patients, to map and quantify the distribution, replication and cell-type specificity of SARS-CoV-2 across the human body, including the brain, from acute infection to more than seven months

SUBMITTER: Stein SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9749650 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature