ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
SARS-CoV-2 infection of airway cells causes intense viral and cell shedding, two spreading mechanisms affected by IL-13.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
- An Inverse Transwell Assay for Airway Mucus Barrier Function Reveals both Virus- and Mucin-Specific Impacts on Infection.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Breaking the bottleneck of asthma treatment: the future of omni-targeted therapy.Journal of advanced research · 2026Review
- Nasal inhalation of antiviral microparticulate powders to target early infection of upper airways.Drug delivery and translational research · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 drives upregulation of EpCAM in respiratory epithelial cells with hypercellular profile during severe COVID-19.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2026Article
- Coordinated immune-epithelial dynamics in the nasal epithelium protect against respiratory virus infection.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Risk Factors of Secondary Bacterial Infection in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Integrated Evaluation ofPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Human iPSC-derived airway models enable comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthy and COPD bronchial epithelium.iScience · 2026Article
- Secondary fungal infections in severe acute viral diseases: clinical features and underlying immune mechanisms.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Maintenance and disruption of mucous barrier homeostasis: the critical role of MUC5AC/MUC5B balance in airway diseases.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Decoding long COVID-associated cardiovascular dysfunction: Mechanisms, models, and new approach methodologies.Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology · 2025Review
- IL-13 protects epithelial cells from SARS-CoV-2 infection by inhibiting ACE2-mediated virus binding and cell entry.ImmunoHorizons · 2025Article
- Type 2 immune responses are associated with less severe COVID-19 in a hospitalized cohort.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2025Article
- 1'-Cyanocytidine-5'-isobutyryl is a potent SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor in culture and infected Syrian hamsters.Science advances · 2025Article
- Airway epithelial SARS-CoV-2 infectious and repair responses: relationships to age, sex, and post-COVID pulmonary syndromes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Aging-associated changes in immunological parameters: Implications for COVID-19 immune response in the elderly.Physiological reports · 2025Review
- Sphingosine-1-phosphate signaling mediates shedding of measles virus-infected respiratory epithelial cells.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 cellular coinfection is limited by superinfection exclusion.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Asthma and COVID-19: Unveiling Outcome Disparities and Treatment Impact Based on Distinct Endotypes.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2025Article
12 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 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Muco-obstructive lung diseases are typically associated with high risks of COVID-19 severity; however, allergic asthma showed reduced susceptibility. To investigate viral spread, primary human airway epithelial (HAE) cell cultures were infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and host–virus interactions were examined via electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, RNA in situ hybridization, and gene expression analyses. In HAE cell cultures, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expression governed cell tropism and viral load and was up-regulated by infection. Electron microscopy identified intense viral egress from infected ciliated cells and severe cytopathogenesis, culminating in the shedding of ciliated cells packed with virions, providing a large viral reservoir for spread and transmission. Intracellular stores of MUC5AC, a major airway mucin involved in asthma, were rapidly depleted, likely to trap viruses. To mimic asthmatic airways, HAE cells were treated with interleukin-13 (IL-13), which reduced viral titers, viral messenger RNA, and cell shedding, and significantly diminished the number of infected cells. Although mucus hyperproduction played a shielding role, IL-13–treated cells maintained a degree of protection despite the removal of mucus. Using Gene Expression Omnibus databases, bulk RNA-sequencing analyses revealed that IL-13 up-regulated genes controlling glycoprotein synthesis, ion transport, and antiviral processes (albeit not the typical interferon-induced genes) and down-regulated genes involved in cilial function and ribosomal processing. More precisely, we showed that IL-13 reduced ACE2 expression, intracellular viral load, and cell-to-cell transmission while increasing the cilial keratan sulfate coating. In conclusion, intense viral and cell shedding caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection was attenuated by IL-13, which affected viral entry, replication, and spread.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.