Researchers reveal the distribution of SARSCoV2 and its relationship with patient tissue damage

 The researchers mapped the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in deceased patients and provided new ideas for the relationship between viral load and tissue damage.

Their study of 11 autopsy cases published today on eLife may help us understand the development of COVID-19 in the body after infection.

To date, more than 24 million SARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported, and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 worldwide has exceeded 828,000. The severity of COVID-19 varies. Although most patients have mild symptoms, some symptoms are more severe and may require hospitalization. A small number of people in the hospital may enter critically ill symptoms, suffer from respiratory failure, vascular complications or multiple organ dysfunction.

Stefanie Deinhardt-Emmer, co-first author of Medical Microbiology at Jena University Hospital, explained: “Clinical observations have shown that COVID-19 is a systemic disease that not only affects the entire Organs, and it affects the entire lungs." Jena, Germany. "However, due to the lack of appropriate experimental models, we currently do not have a clear understanding of the development of diseases in humans and other organisms. Investigating the virus distribution of SARS-CoV-2 in the human body and how this is related to tissue damage can help us solve this problem. gap."

To this end, Deinhardt-Emmer and colleagues studied 11 autopsy cases of COVID-19 patients. They performed an autopsy early after death to minimize the bias caused by the degradation of tissue and viral ribonucleic acid (RNA-a molecule similar to DNA).

Their analysis showed that most patients had high viral loads in their lungs, which caused significant damage to those organs. Using an imaging technique called transmission electron microscopy, the team can also observe intact virus particles in lung tissue.

The co-first author Daniel Vischber, a senior forensic pathologist at Jena University Hospital, said: "Interestingly, we have also detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in various other tissues and organs not related to the lungs. These The lungs did not cause visible tissue damage.” The researchers said that this distribution of viral RNA in the human body supports the view that our immune system cannot adequately respond to the presence of viruses in the blood.