Single-dose cathepsin L CRISPR nanotherapy mitigates long COVID–like lung damage in hamsters

We investigate the long-term cellular response in the lungs of golden Syrian hamsters 31 days after SARS-CoV-2 infection. The SARS-CoV-2-infected golden Syrian hamsters received a single-dose CRISPR-CasRx nanotherapy targeting the host enzyme cathepsin L (SCNC), administered 4 hours post-infection, with a non-targeting CRISPR-CasRx nanotherapy serving as the control. At 31 days post-infection, the caudal lung lobe was isolated. Six samples were subjected to single-cell RNA sequencing, with three samples from the SCNC treatment group and the remaining three from the control group.