Non-productive infection of glial cells with SARS-CoV-2 in hamster organotypic cerebellar slice cultures

The numerous neurological syndromes associated with COVID-19 implicate an effect of viral pathogenesis on neuronal function, yet reports of direct SARS-CoV-2 infection in the brain are conflicting. We used a well-established organotypic brain slice culture to determine the permissivity of hamster brain tissues to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We found levels of live virus waned after inoculation and observed no evidence of cell-to-cell spread, indicating that SARS-CoV-2 infection was non-productive. Nonetheless, we identified a small number of infected cells with glial phenotypes; yet no evidence of viral infection or replication was observed in neurons. Our data corroborates several clinical studies that have assessed patients with COVID-19 and their association with neurological involvement. Comparative transcriptional analysis of RNAseq data from hamster organotypic cerebellar slice cultures inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 or Mock infection treatment