Nature Communications (Oct 2022)

Essential role of TMPRSS2 in SARS-CoV-2 infection in murine airways

  • Naoko Iwata-Yoshikawa,
  • Masatoshi Kakizaki,
  • Nozomi Shiwa-Sudo,
  • Takashi Okura,
  • Maino Tahara,
  • Shuetsu Fukushi,
  • Ken Maeda,
  • Miyuki Kawase,
  • Hideki Asanuma,
  • Yuriko Tomita,
  • Ikuyo Takayama,
  • Shutoku Matsuyama,
  • Kazuya Shirato,
  • Tadaki Suzuki,
  • Noriyo Nagata,
  • Makoto Takeda

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33911-8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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The SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern Omicron, has been reported to mainly use the endocytosis pathway for viral entry, bypassing the furin/TMPRSS2 pathway utilised by other variants. Here, the authors test a panel of SARS-CoV-2 variants in TMPRSS2 knock out mice to show that all tested variants, including Omicron, utilise this pathway in vivo.