SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induces brain pericyte immunoreactivity in absence of productive viral infection
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 pathogenesis causes vascular-mediated neurological disorders via still elusive mechanisms. SARS-CoV-2 infects host cells by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a transmembrane receptor that recognizes the viral spike (S) protein. Brain pericytes were recently shown to express ACE2 at the neurovascular interface, outlining their possible implication in microvasculature injury in COVID-19. Yet, pericyte responses to SARS-CoV-2 is still to be fully elucidated. Using cell-based assays, we report that ACE2 expression in human brain vascular pericytes is highly dynamic and is increased upon S protein stimulation. Pericytes exposed to S protein underwent profound phenotypic changes translated by increased expression of contractile and myofibrogenic proteins, namely α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), fibronectin, collagen I, and neurogenic locus notch homolog protein-3 (NOTCH3). These changes were associated to an altered intracellular calcium (Ca 2+ ) dynamic. Furthermore, S protein induced lipid peroxidation, oxidative and nitrosative stress in pericytes as well as triggered an immune reaction translated by activation of nuclear factor-kappa-B (NF-κB) signalling pathway, which was potentiated by hypoxia, a condition associated to vascular comorbidities, which exacerbate COVID-19 pathogenesis. S protein exposure combined to hypoxia enhanced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in immune cell activation and trafficking, namely interleukin-8 (IL-8), IL-18, macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), and stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1). Finally, we found that S protein could reach the mouse brain via the intranasal route and that reactive ACE2-expressing pericytes are recruited to the damaged tissue undergoing fibrotic scarring in a mouse model of cerebral multifocal micro-occlusions, a main reported vascular-mediated neurological condition associated to COVID-19. Our data demonstrate that the released S protein is sufficient to mediate pericyte immunoreactivity, which may contribute to microvasculature injury in absence of a productive viral infection. Our study provides a better understanding for the possible mechanisms underlying cerebrovascular disorders in COVID-19, paving the way to develop new therapeutic interventions.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".