Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2022 Feb 22;38(11):110515. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110515

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

PMC Copyright notice

Viral replication and pulmonary pathology after heterologous reinfection

A sgE qPCR assay was used to detect viral RNA loads in oral swabs and lung tissue (A, C). A standard TCID₅₀ assay was used to determine levels of infectious virus in oral swabs and lung tissues (B, D). Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining were used to assess histopathology and SARS-CoV-2 antigen distribution in lung tissue (E).

(A) Viral RNA in oral swabs.

(B) Infectious virus in oral swabs.

(C) Viral RNA levels in lung samples.

(D) Infectious virus in lung samples.

(E) Histology and SARS-CoV-2 antigen distribution in lung tissue. H&E (original magnification ×200) and IHC (SARS-CoV-2 N protein, original magnification ×200) staining were performed immediately before (49 DPI) and 5 days after heterologous reinfection (54 DPI/5DPR). H&E (left panels) showed resolving interstitial pneumonia developing into alveolar bronchiolization. Reinfection failed to induce histopathology consistent with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (H&E, 200 × 54 DPI/5 DPR. IHC (right panels) showed that resolving interstitial pneumonia and alveolar bronchiolization were not associated with SARS-CoV-2 immunoreactivity. Reinfection failed to result in SARS-CoV-2 specific immunoreactivity (IHC, original magnification ×200 at 54 DPI/5 DPR), (scale bar 100 μM). A nonparametric one-way AVOVA (Kruskal-Wallis) with correction for multiple comparisons was used to determine statistical differences in PRISM. WA1 reinfection (blue), B.1.1.7 reinfection (red), and B.1.351 reinfection (orange).