ArticleThe Journal of clinical investigation2021
Nasal ciliated cells are primary targets for SARS-CoV-2 replication in the early stage of COVID-19.
Article in The Journal of clinical investigation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 170 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
170 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 292 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mucosal immune response in biology, disease prevention and treatment.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Pooled it
- Construction ofiScience · 2026Article
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- Generation of apical-out nasal organoids to facilitate human respiratory syncytial virus infection and drug screening.iScience · 2026Article
- Review
- Collectin-11, a complement pattern recognition molecule, mediates pulmonary SARS-CoV-2 neutralization and protection.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- Article
- Structural mimics of SARS-CoV-2.Infection · 2026Review
- Intranasal immunization with live-attenuated RSV-vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccines elicits antigen-specific systemic and mucosal immunity and protects against viral challenge and natural infection.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- SAMHD1 depletion restricts SARS-CoV-2 infection by suppressing HNF1-dependent ACE2 expression in lung epithelial cells.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- A modular three in one mucosal vaccine against three antigenic clusters of ACE2 using sarbecoviruses.NPJ vaccines · 2026Article
- Comparative progress on the mechanisms of airway mucosal injury induced by different pathogens: SARS-CoV-2, influenza A virus, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Heterogeneity of Airborne Virus Transmission in the Built Environment: A Narrative Review.Pathogens & immunity · 2026Review
- hECA v2.0: an AI-ready ensemble cell atlas of single-cell RNA and ATAC sequencing data.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Correlations Between Oxygen Consumption, Ventilatory Mechanics, and Lung Ultrasound in Individuals with Post-COVID Syndrome.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Isogenic induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-derived airway- and alveolus-on-chip models reveal specific innate immune responses.Nature biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Primary cilium and TULP3-dependent ciliary targeting of ACE2 in SARS-CoV-2 tropism.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2025Article
- Review
- Nasal mucus-derived KLK13 restricts SARS-CoV-2 infection via proteolytic cleavage of spike.mBio · 2025Article
110 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The upper respiratory tract is compromised in the early period of COVID-19, but SARS-CoV-2 tropism at the cellular level is not fully defined. Unlike recent single-cell RNA-Seq analyses indicating uniformly low mRNA expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry-related host molecules in all nasal epithelial cells, we show that the protein levels are relatively high and that their localizations are restricted to the apical side of multiciliated epithelial cells. In addition, we provide evidence in patients with COVID-19 that SARS-CoV-2 is massively detected and replicated within the multiciliated cells. We observed these findings during the early stage of COVID-19, when infected ciliated cells were rapidly replaced by differentiating precursor cells. Moreover, our analyses revealed that SARS-CoV-2 cellular tropism was restricted to the nasal ciliated versus oral squamous epithelium. These results imply that targeting ciliated cells of the nasal epithelium during the early stage of COVID-19 could be an ideal strategy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 propagation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.