SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence in the human body and brain at autopsy, 2022, Stein et al

Preprint

Abstract

COVID-19 is known to cause multi-organ dysfunction1-3 in acute infection, with prolonged symptoms experienced by some patients, termed Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC)4-5. However, the burden of infection outside the respiratory tract and time to viral clearance is not well characterized, particularly in the brain3,6-14. We performed complete autopsies on 44 patients with COVID-19 to map and quantify SARS-CoV-2 distribution, replication, and cell-type specificity across the human body, including brain, from acute infection through over seven months following symptom onset. We show that SARS-CoV-2 is widely distributed, even among patients who died with asymptomatic to mild COVID-19, and that virus replication is present in multiple extrapulmonary tissues early in infection. Further, we detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in multiple anatomic sites, including regions throughout the brain, for up to 230 days following symptom onset. Despite extensive distribution of SARS-CoV-2 in the body, we observed a paucity of inflammation or direct viral cytopathology outside of the lungs. Our data prove that SARS-CoV-2 causes systemic infection and can persist in the body for months.

Open access, https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1139035/v1

 

If anyone is able to read through this, did they specifically look for SARS-CoV-2? Or would their methods also find other viruses or pathogens? With so many infections that are known to infect most humans, it's hard to think this would be the only one to do this.

 

They used ISH to detect SARS-CoV-2 in the brain tissue. Technique described here in this article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/probe/docs/techish/

It is used for many different situations.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topic...s-and-molecular-biology/in-situ-hybridization

including EBV associated lymphomas
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/200/7/1078/905519

 

Merged thread

Study finds coronavirus can persist for months in almost every organ system

Study finds coronavirus can persist for months in almost every organ system: a step towards understanding long COVID-19

Here's a link to the actual study, which has not yet been peer reviewed:
SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence throughout
the human body and brain

 

A few interesting Twitter threads on this:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1473721448342687754


Amy Proal also quote-tweeted that in a thread where she brings up possible relevance to ME/CFS, which I'll link in the larger "ME/CFS following Covid" thread.

Zoe Hyde (who has 65,000 followers as compared to Amy Proal's approx 12,000) also tweeted about it here

https://twitter.com/user/status/1475722062719111172


which inspired a more critical thread that I include here because, in spite of the importance of the implications raised by this preprint, contains interesting points about the importance of presenting scientific information to the lay public in context:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1476209804666601472

 

Merged thread

Published in Nature today

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05542-y

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is known to cause multi-organ dysfunction1,2,3 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 brain3,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14. 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 following symptom onset.

We show that SARS-CoV-2 is widely distributed, predominantly among patients who died with severe COVID-19, and that virus replication is present in multiple respiratory and non-respiratory tissues, including the brain, early in infection. Further, we detected persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA in multiple anatomic sites, including throughout the brain, as late as 230 days following symptom onset in one case. Despite extensive distribution of SARS-CoV-2 RNA throughout the body, we observed little evidence of inflammation or direct viral cytopathology outside the respiratory tract. Our data indicate that in some patients SARS-CoV-2 can cause systemic infection and persist in the body for months.

 

Characteristics of the study population - 52.3% obesese, 61.4% with 3 or more comorbidities, 61.4% with hypertension, 68.2% over the age of 55 - whatever this study tells us about SARS COVID 19, it has only limited application to how the virus impacts younger/healthier populations.

 

The ME/CFS study discussed here:
https://www.s4me.info/threads/tissu...n-me-cfs-2022-prusty-et-al.30763/#post-450013

 

Also discussed a year prior as a preprint in thread https://www.s4me.info/threads/prepr...uman-body-and-brain-2021-chertow-et-al.23957/