Cargando…
An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy
SARS-CoV-2 virions enter the host cells by docking their spike glycoproteins to the membrane-bound Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2. After intracellular assembly, the newly formed virions are released from the infected cells to propagate the infection, using the extra-cytoplasmic ACE2 docking mechani...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8904465/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35260703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07867-0 |
_version_ | 1784664955659747328 |
---|---|
author | Merolli, Antonio Kasaei, Leila Ramasamy, Santhamani Kolloli, Afsal Kumar, Ranjeet Subbian, Selvakumar Feldman, Leonard C. |
author_facet | Merolli, Antonio Kasaei, Leila Ramasamy, Santhamani Kolloli, Afsal Kumar, Ranjeet Subbian, Selvakumar Feldman, Leonard C. |
author_sort | Merolli, Antonio |
collection | PubMed |
description | SARS-CoV-2 virions enter the host cells by docking their spike glycoproteins to the membrane-bound Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2. After intracellular assembly, the newly formed virions are released from the infected cells to propagate the infection, using the extra-cytoplasmic ACE2 docking mechanism. However, the molecular events underpinning SARS-CoV-2 transmission between host cells are not fully understood. Here, we report the findings of a scanning Helium-ion microscopy study performed on Vero E6 cells infected with mNeonGreen-expressing SARS-CoV-2. Our data reveal, with unprecedented resolution, the presence of: (1) long tunneling nanotubes that connect two or more host cells over submillimeter distances; (2) large scale multiple cell fusion events (syncytia); and (3) abundant extracellular vesicles of various sizes. Taken together, these ultrastructural features describe a novel intra-cytoplasmic connection among SARS-CoV-2 infected cells that may act as an alternative route of viral transmission, disengaged from the well-known extra-cytoplasmic ACE2 docking mechanism. Such route may explain the elusiveness of SARS-CoV-2 to survive from the immune surveillance of the infected host. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8904465 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89044652022-03-09 An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy Merolli, Antonio Kasaei, Leila Ramasamy, Santhamani Kolloli, Afsal Kumar, Ranjeet Subbian, Selvakumar Feldman, Leonard C. Sci Rep Article SARS-CoV-2 virions enter the host cells by docking their spike glycoproteins to the membrane-bound Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2. After intracellular assembly, the newly formed virions are released from the infected cells to propagate the infection, using the extra-cytoplasmic ACE2 docking mechanism. However, the molecular events underpinning SARS-CoV-2 transmission between host cells are not fully understood. Here, we report the findings of a scanning Helium-ion microscopy study performed on Vero E6 cells infected with mNeonGreen-expressing SARS-CoV-2. Our data reveal, with unprecedented resolution, the presence of: (1) long tunneling nanotubes that connect two or more host cells over submillimeter distances; (2) large scale multiple cell fusion events (syncytia); and (3) abundant extracellular vesicles of various sizes. Taken together, these ultrastructural features describe a novel intra-cytoplasmic connection among SARS-CoV-2 infected cells that may act as an alternative route of viral transmission, disengaged from the well-known extra-cytoplasmic ACE2 docking mechanism. Such route may explain the elusiveness of SARS-CoV-2 to survive from the immune surveillance of the infected host. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8904465/ /pubmed/35260703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07867-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Merolli, Antonio Kasaei, Leila Ramasamy, Santhamani Kolloli, Afsal Kumar, Ranjeet Subbian, Selvakumar Feldman, Leonard C. An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy |
title | An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy |
title_full | An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy |
title_fullStr | An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy |
title_full_unstemmed | An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy |
title_short | An intra-cytoplasmic route for SARS-CoV-2 transmission unveiled by Helium-ion microscopy |
title_sort | intra-cytoplasmic route for sars-cov-2 transmission unveiled by helium-ion microscopy |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8904465/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35260703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07867-0 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT merolliantonio anintracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT kasaeileila anintracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT ramasamysanthamani anintracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT kolloliafsal anintracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT kumarranjeet anintracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT subbianselvakumar anintracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT feldmanleonardc anintracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT merolliantonio intracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT kasaeileila intracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT ramasamysanthamani intracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT kolloliafsal intracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT kumarranjeet intracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT subbianselvakumar intracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy AT feldmanleonardc intracytoplasmicrouteforsarscov2transmissionunveiledbyheliumionmicroscopy |