The researchers led by Prof. Thomas Hartung have developed spherical nerve cell formations (brain organoids), which are already used as in vitro systems in tests for neurotoxicity, for example. The structures are made of human induced pluripotent stem cells which can develop into all common cell types such as different types of nerve cells, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.
For their research, they infected these brain organoids with small amounts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and observed that the virus infects the neurons in the mini-brains via the human ACE2 protein, which is known to be an important target for SARS-CoV-2. The virus then increased tenfold in the neurons within three days.
The study is currently being reviewed in the journal ALTEX.
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Thursday, 18 June 2020 13:32
Coronavirus is able to infect brain cells Featured
Scientists at the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore have used an in vitro model to find out that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 can infect the human brain and multiply in the brain's nerve cells.
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