SARS-CoV2 Infection, Image 1a

SARS-CoV2 Infection, Image 1a

Danielle Tomasello, Alexsia Richards

Whitehead Institute

We made sensory neurons from human stem cells and infected with the COVID19 virus. Infected neurons were stained with nucleocapsid (red), which recognizes the virus, ACE2 (green), the receptor that SAR-CoV2 binds, and a sensory neuron marker Ret (magenta) with DAPI. 

We were interested to see if sensory neurons, which respond to pain, touch and temperature, can be infected by SARS-CoV2. The sensory neurons formed these beautiful ganglia which are physiological and similar to how they arrange in our bodies. The infected neuron culture shows how the virus can infect connected cells.

 

red neurons surrounded by purple string-like cells and small glowing green cells

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