Mini organs reveal how the coronavirus ravages the body

Mini organs reveal how the coronavirus ravages the body

Mini organs show path of destruction

The new coronavirus can infect not only lungs, but also blood vessels, kidneys, livers and other organs, according to various experiments with laboratory-made organoids. Organoids, created from stem cells, assemble various cell types that comprise organs in the body. This allows them to model what happens in reality better than standard cell-line experiments can. Doctors knew that various organs were injured in the course of a coronavirus infection, but they didn’t know whether that damage was a direct result of the virus entering those organs. The experiments suggest it is. “We are fairly confident now that the virus that causes COVID-19 can infect tissue outside the lung and significantly contribute to disease,” says genetic engineer Josef Penninger.Nature | 6 min read