ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Tropism of SARS-CoV-2 for human cortical astrocytes.
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. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 107 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
107 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 156 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mapping the Cerebral Organoid Landscape: A Systematic Review of Preclinical 3D Models in Neuroscience.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Pooled it
- Parallel electrophysiological abnormalities due to COVID-19 infection and to Alzheimer's disease and related dementia.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Pooled it
- Beyond the neuron: the role of glial cells in viral neuropathogenesis.Journal of virology · 2026Review
- Understanding neuroinflammation in post-COVID-19 syndrome: biological mechanisms, diagnostic biomarkers, and therapeutic prospects.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with hypothalamic orexin suppression and persistent cortical NeuN attenuation.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- When Viruses Talk through Extracellular Vesicles: a New Perspective on Sars-Cov-2-Induced Neurodegeneration.Journal of extracellular vesicles · 2026Article
- LearningRx Cognitive Training for Workplace Self-Efficacy in Adults with Post-COVID-19 Brain Fog: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Nutritional Approaches to Managing Brain Fog: Insights Into Neuroinflammation, the Gut-brain Axis, and Sleep.Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Quinolinic acid as trigger/biomarker of dysosmia/dysgeusia in patients with acute coronavirus disease 2019: A retrospective case-control study.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Identifying GFAP-expressing cell susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection using human iPSC-derived neural cells.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Organoids Gone Viral: A Comprehensive Review on Human Organoid Models to Study Viral Pathogenesis.Viruses · 2026Review
- Inducible CD147 up-regulation boosts extended SARS-CoV-2 infection triggering severe COVID-19 independent of ACE2.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Article
- Anti-SARS-CoV-2 VHH and C7C peptide fused with Angiopep-2 efficiently traverse blood-brain barrier model and neutralizes virus.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- From HIV to SARS-CoV-2 associated neurological disorder ("HAND" to "SAND"): Viral infection as a "time-bomb" for the aging brain.Neuroscience applied · 2026Review
- Coupling between neural oscillations and white matter integrity reveals cognitive computational profiles following COVID-19.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- COVID-19-associated neurological and psychological manifestations.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2025Review
- SARS-CoV-2 infection in hiPSC-derived neurons is cathepsin-dependent and causes differential accumulation of HIF1ɑ and phosphorylated tau.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2-induced damage to rat cortical neuronal networks ex vivo is mediated by the pro-inflammatory activation of the cGAS-STING pathway.Journal of neurovirology · 2025Article
- Astroglia-mediated neuroinflammation as a putative mechanism of neurological outcomes in COVID-19? Insights from a Brazilian cohort.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Comprehensive mapping of the signaling events evoked by SARS-CoV-2 variants delta and omicron in human astrocytes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
- Update of
Authors and funding
28 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) readily infects a variety of cell types impacting the function of vital organ systems, with particularly severe impact on respiratory function. Neurological symptoms, which range in severity, accompany as many as one-third of COVID-19 cases, indicating a potential vulnerability of neural cell types. To assess whether human cortical cells can be directly infected by SARS-CoV-2, we utilized stem-cell-derived cortical organoids as well as primary human cortical tissue, both from developmental and adult stages. We find significant and predominant infection in cortical astrocytes in both primary tissue and organoid cultures, with minimal infection of other cortical populations. Infected and bystander astrocytes have a corresponding increase in inflammatory gene expression, reactivity characteristics, increased cytokine and growth factor signaling, and cellular stress. Although human cortical cells, particularly astrocytes, have no observable ACE2 expression, we find high levels of coronavirus coreceptors in infected astrocytes, including CD147 and DPP4. Decreasing coreceptor abundance and activity reduces overall infection rate, and increasing expression is sufficient to promote infection. Thus, we find tropism of SARS-CoV-2 for human astrocytes resulting in inflammatory gliosis-type injury that is dependent on coronavirus coreceptors.
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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.