1. Coinfection with influenza A virus enhances SARS-CoV-2 infectivity
- Author
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Xiaoyi Sun, Mingliang Tang, Zhen Zhang, Lianghui Dong, Ke Xu, Simeng Liang, Chao Shen, Huan Yan, Kun Song, Zhidong Tang, Xin Wang, Lei Bai, Ming Guo, Qianyun Liu, Zhixiang Huang, Yongliang Zhao, Li Zhou, Min Xiang, Yu Chen, Xinjin Liu, Yu Zhou, Yucheng Zheng, Jiajie Ye, Ming Dai, Wenchao Zheng, Ke Lan, Danping Niu, and Jiazhen Dong
- Subjects
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,viruses ,Transcriptional regulatory elements ,Biology ,medicine.disease_cause ,Virus ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Pandemic ,Influenza A virus ,medicine ,Flu season ,Humans ,skin and connective tissue diseases ,Molecular Biology ,030304 developmental biology ,Infectivity ,0303 health sciences ,Coinfection ,SARS-CoV-2 ,fungi ,virus diseases ,COVID-19 ,Cell Biology ,medicine.disease ,Virology ,respiratory tract diseases ,Mechanisms of disease ,Viral load ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
The upcoming flu season in the Northern Hemisphere merging with the current COVID-19 pandemic raises a potentially severe threat to public health. Through experimental coinfection with influenza A virus (IAV) and either pseudotyped or live SARS-CoV-2 virus, we found that IAV preinfection significantly promoted the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in a broad range of cell types. Remarkably, in vivo, increased SARS-CoV-2 viral load and more severe lung damage were observed in mice coinfected with IAV. Moreover, such enhancement of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity was not observed with several other respiratory viruses, likely due to a unique feature of IAV to elevate ACE2 expression. This study illustrates that IAV has a unique ability to aggravate SARS-CoV-2 infection, and thus, prevention of IAV infection is of great significance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Published
- 2021