Figure 3.

The infection of pulmonary ECs by SARS-CoV-2 in SARS-CoV-2 infected non-human primates and patients who died from severe COVID-19. (A) Representative image (left panel, n = 3) shows colocalization (yellow, arrows) of SARS-CoV-2 (green) and CD31 (red) in the lung of an African green monkey (AGM). Channel separation (right in inset) demonstrates that the SARS-CoV-2 and CD31 signal form an identical pattern, and that there is no autofluorescence (blue) in these areas. Quantitative analysis of SARS-CoV-2-infected endothelial cells in the lung of Naïve and infected AGM (right panel). Multilabel immunofluorescence histochemistry was used to quantify the proportion of SARS-CoV-2 positive CD31+ endothelial cells in total infected cells in the lung of AGMs (PA16, PA20 and PA24). White=DAPI, green=SARS-CoV-2, red=CD31, and blue=autofluorescence. *P < 0.05 vs naïve monkeys by one tail student T test (B) Representative RNAscope image of SARS-CoV-2 and CD31 RNA in the lung of infected AGM (n = 3). Yellow arrows: co-localization of Spike (shown in red) with CD31 (shown in light blue) RNA signal (shown in purple). (C) Colocalization of SARS-CoV-2 with CD31 in two cells (arrows) of a patient that died from COVID-19 (Case 3). Channel separation distinguishes true signal from red blood cells (arrowheads) that lack nuclei (DAPI channel) and can be seen in the autofluorescent/empty channel (blue). (D) RNAscope of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (red, black arrow) in the lung of the decreased COVID-19 patient (Case 3) (E) RNAscope of SARS-CoV-2 RNA (red) and CD31 RNA (green) in the lung of Case 2 and Case 1. Co-localization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA with CD31 was found in the lung of Case 2 patient (left panel) but not Case 1 patient (right panel). Yellow arrows: co-localization of Spike (showing in red) with CD31 (shown in light blue) RNA signal (shown in purple).