Next Generation Sequencing Facilitates Quantitative Analysis of Mock/SARS-CoV-2 Infected humanized ACE2 Mice Olfactory Epithelium and Olfactory Bulb Transcriptomes

SARS-CoV-2 infection causes a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations in human, and olfactory dysfunction represents as one of the most predictive and common symptoms in COVID-19 patients. Herein we demonstrate intranasal inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 induces robust viral replication in the olfactory epithelium (OE), not olfactory bulb (OB), resulting in transient olfactory dysfunction in humanized ACE2 mice. To decipher the underlying mechanism of the observed olfactory dysfunction in SARS-CoV-2 infected mice at the molecular level, RNA-Seq analyses of the OE and OB samples from SARS-CoV-2 infected mice were performed in comparison with that from the control animals. Overall design: To decipher the underlying mechanism of the observed olfactory dysfunction in SARS-CoV-2 infected mice at the molecular level, RNA-Seq analyses of the OE and OB samples from SARS-CoV-2 infected mice (2 and 4 dpi) were performed in comparison with that from the control animals.