SARS-CoV-2 Neurotropism and Single Cell Responses in Brain Organoids Containing Innately Developing Microglia

Here, we derive human brain organoids with innately developing microglia to investigate the cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection on a single cell level. We find evidence of limited tropism to SARS-CoV-2 for all major cell types and observe extensive neuronal cell death that also include non-infected cells. Single cell transcriptome profiling reveals distinct responses in microglia and astrocytes that share features with cellular states observed in neurodegenerative diseases Overall design: IPSC-derived cerebral organoids were infected with live SARS-CoV-2 and single cells were collected from three pooled orgnoids for each condition: control, 24 and 72 hour post-infection. Each condition comprised of two replicates.