SARS-CoV-2 infects carotid arteries: implications for vascular disease and organ injury in COVID-19

Pfefferle, S.; Guenther, T.; Puelles, V.; Heinrich, F.; Noerz, D.; Czech-Sioli, M.; Carstens, A.; Krasemann, S.; Wong, M.; Oestereich, L.; Magnus, T.; Allweiss, L.; Edler, C.; Schroeder, A.-S.; Dandri, M.; Huber, T.; Glatzel, M.; Pueschel, K.; Grundhoff, A.; Luetgehetmann, M.; Aepfelbacher, M.; Fischer, N.

doi:10.1101/2020.10.10.334458

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.10.10.334458

SARS-CoV-2 infects carotid arteries: implications for vascular disease and organ injury in COVID-19

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Abstract

Stroke and central nervous system dysfunction are cardinal symptoms in critically ill corona virus disease 19 (COVID-19) patients. In an autopsy series of 32 COVID-19 patients, we investigated whether carotid arteries were infected with SARS-CoV-2 by employing genomic, virologic, histochemical and transcriptomic analyses. We show that SARS-CoV-2 productively infects and modulates vascular responses in carotid arteries. This finding has far reaching implications for the understanding and clinical treatment of COVID-19.

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Pfefferle, S., Guenther, T., Puelles, V., Heinrich, F., Noerz, D., Czech-Sioli, M., Carstens, A., Krasemann, S., Wong, M., Oestereich, L., Magnus, T., Allweiss, L., Edler, C., Schroeder, A.-S., Dandri, M., Huber, T., Glatzel, M., Pueschel, K., Grundhoff, A., Luetgehetmann, M., Aepfelbacher, M., Fischer, N.. 2020-10-12. SARS-CoV-2 infects carotid arteries: implications for vascular disease and organ injury in COVID-19. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.10.334458

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