SARS-CoV-2 Productively Infects Human Gut Enterocytes

  1. Mart M. Lamers
  2. Joep Beumer
  3. Jelte van der Vaart
  4. Kèvin Knoops
  5. Jens Puschhof
  6. Tim I. Breugem
  7. Raimond B.G. Ravelli
  8. J. Paul van Schayck
  9. Anna Z. Mykytyn
  10. Hans Q. Duimel
  11. Elly van Donselaar
  12. Samra Riesebosch
  13. Helma J.H. Kuijpers
  14. Debby Schipper
  15. Willine J. van de Wetering
  16. Miranda de Graaf
  17. Marion Koopmans
  18. Edwin Cuppen
  19. Peter J. Peters
  20. Bart L. Haagmans
  21. Hans Clevers

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Abstract

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, is an influenza-like disease with a respiratory route of transmission, yet clinical evidence suggests that the intestine may present another viral target organ. Indeed, the SARS-CoV-2 receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is highly expressed on differentiated enterocytes. In human small intestinal organoids, enterocytes were readily infected by SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 as demonstrated by confocal- and electron-microscopy. Consequently, significant titers of infectious viral particles were measured. mRNA expression analysis revealed strong induction of a generic viral response program. We conclude that intestinal epithelium supports SARS-CoV-2 replication.

One Sentence Summary

SARS-CoV-2 infection of enterocytes in human small intestinal organoids

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.25.060350: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    Results from JetFighter: Please consider improving the rainbow (“jet”) colormap(s) used on page 11. At least one figure is not accessible to readers with colorblindness and/or is not true to the data, i.e. not perceptually uniform.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.25.060350 on bioRxiv