SARS-CoV-2 infection in lung transplant recipients induces circulating exosomes with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S2

The World Health Organization declared SARS-CoV-2 a global pandemic in March 2020. This virus caused coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has killed over 4.8M people worldwide to date. Diagnosis of COVID-19 is commonly established by detecting the SARS-CoV-2 within respiratory secretions using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. For the patients with end-stage respiratory disease, LTx is the last treatment option.

In previous work, researchers at the St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center have shown exosomes containing viral antigens in LTxRs with respiratory viral infections and this may play a role in the pathogenesis of chronic lung allograft dysfunction. The researchers demonstrate that exosomes carry SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S2 in symptomatic and asymptomatic LTxR individuals waiting for LTx, suggesting that detection of exosomes with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S2 can be developed as more sensitive approach for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Model demonstrating the findings symptomatic LTxRs and symptomatic patients waiting for LTx and proportion of asymptomatic patients (waiting for LTx) carry spike protein S2 on the exosomes. Immunizing the mice with exosomes from both groups carrying exosomes with spike protein induced Abs to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mice