ArticleBiomedicines2024
SARS-CoV-2-Related Olfactory Dysfunction: Autopsy Findings, Histopathology, and Evaluation of Viral RNA and ACE2 Expression in Olfactory Bulbs.
Article in Biomedicines, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurological impairment in long COVID: implications for neurodegenerative disease.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Histopathological changes in the olfactory pathway in COVID-19: An autopsy-based case-control study.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Review
- Synergy of SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 Infections in the Human Brain.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Neuroimmune pathophysiology of long COVID.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025Review
- Viral Etiologies and Histopathological Features of Olfactory Dysfunction: A Systematic Review.Health science reports · 2025Review
- Seven-tesla magnetic resonance imaging of the nervus terminalis, olfactory tracts, and olfactory bulbs in COVID-19 patients with anosmia and hypogeusia.Frontiers in radiology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has been a health emergency with a significant impact on the world due to its high infectiousness. The disease, primarily identified in the lower respiratory tract, develops with numerous clinical symptoms affecting multiple organs and displays a clinical finding of anosmia. Several authors have investigated the pathogenetic mechanisms of the olfactory disturbances caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, proposing different hypotheses and showing contradictory results. Since uncertainties remain about possible virus neurotropism and direct damage to the olfactory bulb, we investigated the expression of SARS-CoV-2 as well as ACE2 receptor transcripts in autoptic lung and olfactory bulb tissues, with respect to the histopathological features.
methodsTwenty-five COVID-19 olfactory bulbs and lung tissues were randomly collected from 200 initial autopsies performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Routine diagnosis was based on clinical and radiological findings and were confirmed with post-mortem swabs. Real-time RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 and ACE2 receptor RNA was carried out on autoptic FFPE lung and olfactory bulb tissues. Histological staining was performed on tissue specimens and compared with the molecular data.
resultsWhile real-time RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 was positive in 23 out of 25 lung samples, the viral RNA expression was absent in olfactory bulbs. ACE2-receptor RNA was present in all tissues examined, being highly expressed in lung samples than olfactory bulbs.
conclusionsOur finding suggests that COVID-19 anosmia is not only due to neurotropism and the direct action of SARS-CoV-2 entering the olfactory bulb. The mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 neuropathogenesis in the olfactory bulb requires a better elucidation and further research studies to mitigate the olfactory bulb damage associated with virus action.
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