ArticleStem cell reviews and reports2022
SARS-CoV-2 Infects Red Blood Cell Progenitors and Dysregulates Hemoglobin and Iron Metabolism.
Article in Stem cell reviews and reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Associations of Iron Related Biomarkers with Risk, Clinical Severity and Mortality in SARS-CoV-2 Patients: A Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of oral melatonin in patients with severe COVID-19: a randomized controlled trial.Inflammopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Immune regulation by erythroid cells: how erythroid progenitor cells and mature red blood cells shape immunity.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2026Review
- Dual Functions of Polyamines in Shaping Host-Specific Pathogen Dynamics.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Clinical implications of ferroptosis in critical illness: a narrative review.Journal of intensive care · 2026Review
- Impact of nutrition on long COVID.Sports medicine and health science · 2026Review
- Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus Binding to Red Blood Cells Disrupts Iron Homeostasis and Promotes Viral Infection.Veterinary sciences · 2026Article
- Relationship between lifestyle: physical activity, diet, smoking, and the duration of symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Article
- Targeting asparagine and cysteine in SARS-CoV-2 variants and human pro-inflammatory mediators to alleviate COVID-19 severity; a cross-section and in-silico study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Kidney involvement and anemia in COVID-19 infection.World journal of nephrology · 2025Review
- Effect of Iron on Viral Infections.Food and environmental virology · 2025Review
- Basic implications on three pathways associated with SARS-CoV-2.Biomedical journal · 2025Review
- Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Erythropoietin Resistance Index in Hemodialysis Patients.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A β-Thalassemia Cell Biobank: Updates, Further Validation in Genetic and Therapeutic Research and Opportunities During (and After) the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Hookworm infection modulates lung and intestinal transcriptomic responses to SARS-CoV-2 in Syrian hamsters.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Patients with post-COVID-19 condition show minor blood transcriptomic changes, with altered erythrocyte gene expression in a male subgroup.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Combination of spatial transcriptomics analysis and retrospective study reveals liver infection of SARS-COV-2 is associated with clinical outcomes of COVID-19.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- Comparison of pathogenicity and host responses of emerging porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus variants in piglets.Journal of virology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSARS-CoV-2 infection causes acute respiratory distress, which may progress to multiorgan failure and death. Severe COVID-19 disease is accompanied by reduced erythrocyte turnover, low hemoglobin levels along with increased total bilirubin and ferritin serum concentrations. Moreover, expansion of erythroid progenitors in peripheral blood together with hypoxia, anemia, and coagulopathies highly correlates with severity and mortality. We demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 directly infects erythroid precursor cells, impairs hemoglobin homeostasis and aggravates COVID-19 disease.
methodsErythroid precursor cells derived from peripheral CD34+ blood stem cells of healthy donors were infected in vitro with SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant and differentiated into red blood cells (RBCs). Hemoglobin and iron metabolism in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and controls were analyzed in plasma-depleted whole blood samples. Raman trapping spectroscopy rapidly identified diseased cells.
resultsRBC precursors express ACE2 receptor and CD147 at day 5 of differentiation, which makes them susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. qPCR analysis of differentiated RBCs revealed increased HAMP mRNA expression levels, encoding for hepcidin, which inhibits iron uptake. COVID-19 patients showed impaired hemoglobin biosynthesis, enhanced formation of zinc-protoporphyrine IX, heme-CO
conclusionsOur data identify RBC precursors as a direct target of SARS-CoV-2 and suggest that SARS-CoV-2 induced dysregulation in hemoglobin- and iron-metabolism contributes to the severe systemic course of COVID-19. This opens the door for new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
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