Infection of bat and human intestinal organoids by SARS-CoV-2
GI cell biology
Authors: Zhou et al.
Link to paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0912-6#Sec10
Journal/ Pre-Print: Nature Medicine
Tags: GI, cell biology
Research Highlights
1. Establishment of horseshoe bat enteric organoids to study CoV-SARS2
2. Demonstration of tropism of CoV-SARS2 towards bat enteric cells
3. Recapitulation of enteric clinical symptoms in human intestinal organoid.
Summary
Natural origins of CoV-SARS2 have been speculated since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemics. This study demonstrated that organoids isolated from the intestine of a species of bats in China were both susceptible and permissive to CoV-SARS2 infection. Not only did it suggest a bat origin, it will become a valuable tool to study the evolution of tropism and cell biology of CoV-SARS2 in its natural host. Human intestinal organoids were also infected with CoV-SARS2 and proved to have elevated levels of cytokines, pointing to a cellular basis of intestinal symptoms in some COVID-19 patients.
Impact for SARS-CoV2/COVID19 research efforts
Understand the virology and/or cell biology of SARS-CoV2/COVID19
Clinical symptoms and pathogenesis of SARS-Cov2/COVID19
Study Type
In vitro study
Strengths and limitations of the paper
Novelty: It is the first established bat intestinal organoids.
Standing in the field: This study adds to existing literature on SARS-CoV2 infection of gut enterocytes.
Appropriate statistics:
- A few experiments lack test statistics possibly due to the rarity of samples (n = 1)
- T-test requires assumptions of normality and equality of variance which the authors didn’t provide. Although not necessary, it’s good for overall rigors.
Viral model used: Virus isolated from patients
Translatability: It is yet to reach translational potential.
Main limitations:
- Although not necessary, it will be nice to clarify the infectibility of CoV-SARS2 particles isolated from bat organoids culture towards both bat and human cells.
- Technical and experimental replicates lacking