ArticleScience advances2022
Tunneling nanotubes provide a route for SARS-CoV-2 spreading.
Article in Science advances, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 135 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Tunneling nanotubes contribute to Zika virus pathogenesis at the maternal-fetal interfacemBio · 2026Article
- Regulation and function of specialized membrane protrusions in intercellular communication.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2026Review
- Article
- From energy provision to protein synthesis: Tunnelling nanotubes as mediators of intercellular metabolic cooperation in cancer.FEBS open bio · 2026Review
- The molecular architecture of tunneling nanotubes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- BVDV NS5A Binds to CKAP2 and Activates the PI3K/AKT/mTOR Pathway to Facilitate Virus Transmission Through Tunneling Nanotubes.Veterinary sciences · 2026Article
- Building the bridges: molecular mechanisms of tunneling nanotube formation.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial Transfer to Endothelial Cells: Mechanisms, Evidence, and Therapeutic Potential.Circulation research · 2026Review
- Breaking cellular boundaries: molecular mechanisms of tunneling nanotube formation and fusion.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Review
- Ribosome transfer via tunnelling nanotubes rescues protein synthesis in pancreatic cancer cells.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Article
- Human keratinocytes exhibit limited potential for SARS-CoV-2 infection despite ACE2 and mature cathepsin L expression.JID innovations : skin science from molecules to population health · 2026Article
- Tunneling nanotubes induced by pseudorabies virus facilitate viral transmission in neuronal cells to evade the immune system.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Article
- Implications of virus-induced stress granules in tauopathies.Translational neurodegeneration · 2026Review
- Iron-related intercellular communication in the liver: Main players and mechanisms.European journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Nano- and Microtubes: Tiny Fusion Events but Not Overall Plasma Membrane Merger for Exchanging Intracellular Components.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Intercellular highways of viral spread: tunneling nanotubes and extracellular vesicles at the maternal-fetal interface.Current opinion in virology · 2025Review
- Evidence of Mpox clade IIb infection in primary human alveolar epithelium.Emerging microbes & infections · 2025Article
- Extracellular filaments revealed by affinity capture cryogenic-electron tomography.Nature communications · 2025Article
14 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
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neurological manifestations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection represent a major issue in long coronavirus disease. How SARS-CoV-2 gains access to the brain and how infection leads to neurological symptoms are not clear because the principal means of viral entry by endocytosis, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, are barely detectable in the brain. We report that human neuronal cells, nonpermissive to infection through the endocytic pathway, can be infected when cocultured with permissive infected epithelial cells. SARS-CoV-2 induces the formation of tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) and exploits this route to spread to uninfected cells. In cellulo correlative fluorescence and cryo-electron tomography reveal that SARS-CoV-2 is associated with TNTs between permissive cells. Furthermore, multiple vesicular structures such as double-membrane vesicles, sites of viral replication, are observed inside TNTs between permissive and nonpermissive cells. Our data highlight a previously unknown mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 spreading, likely used as a route to invade nonpermissive cells and potentiate infection in permissive cells.
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.