Detection of SARS-CoV-2 genome and whole transcriptome sequencing in Frontal Cortex of COVID-19 patients

Brain Behav Immun. 2021 May 19:S0889-1591(21)00193-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.05.012. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTSARS-Cov-2 infection is frequently associated with Nervous System manifestations. However, it is not clear how SARS-CoV-2 can cause neurological dysfunctions and which molecular processes are affected in the brain. In this work, we examined the frontal cortex tissue of patients who died of COVID-19 for the presence of SARS-CoV-2, comparing qRT-PCR with ddPCR. We also investigated the transcriptomic profile of frontal cortex from COVID-19 patients and matched controls by RNA-seq analysis to characterize the transcriptional signature. Our data showed that SARS-CoV-2 could be detected by ddPCR in 8 (88%) of 9 examined samples while by qRT-PCR in one case only (11%). Transcriptomic analysis revealed that 11 genes (10 mRNAs and 1 lncRNA) were differential expressed when frontal cortex of COVID-19 patients were compared to controls. These genes fall into categories including hypoxia, hemoglobin-stabilizing protein, hydrogen peroxide processes. This work demonstrated that the quantity of viral RNA in frontal cortex is minimal and it can be detected only with a very sensitive method (ddPCR). Thus, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 does not actively infect and replicate in the brain; its topography within encephalic structures remains uncertain. Moreover, COVID-19 may have a role on brain gene expression, since we observed an important downregulation of genes associated to hy...
Source: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Category: Neurology Authors: Source Type: research