Figure 5.

Infection of the olfactory mucosa by SARS-CoV-2

(A–C) Confocal images of sections through the OM of control #4 (A and B) and non-infected OM of COVID #22 (C). Four OSNs harbor puncta for a pool of probes for four OR genes, and KRT8-IR sustentacular cells harbor TMPRSS2 puncta (A). ACE2-IR crests face the lumen of the nasal cavity (B). ANO2 is a marker for mature OSNs, GPX3 for sustentacular cells, and KRT5/6 for basal cells (C).

(D–J) Confocal images of sections through the OM of COVID #8. Nucleocapsid-IR signal occurs in a few sustentacular cells but not in TUBB3-IR OSNs, and uninfected sustentacular cells harbor puncta for UGT2A1, a gene encoding an UDP glucuronosyltransferase (D). N puncta are densely packed in several sustentacular cells, which are low on or devoid of UGT2A1 puncta and ERMN-IR signal, whereas uninfected sustentacular cells harbor UGT2A1 puncta and are capped with ERMN-IR signal (E). Uninfected sustentacular cells harbor GPX3 puncta but not an individual sustentacular cell diffusely filled with nucleocapsid-IR signal and harboring orf1ab-sense puncta (F). Numerous OSNs in the middle layer harbor puncta for the probe pool, and the apical layer of KRT8-IR sustentacular cells harbors S-sense puncta (G and H). The dashed square in (G) is the area magnified in (H). S-sense puncta occur in the apical layer of KRT8-IR sustentacular cells, but not in OSNs harboring puncta for the probe pool (I) and not in an individual OR7C1⁺ OSN and in surrounding TUBB3-IR cells (J).

DAPI served as nuclear stain. See also Figures S2 and S5.