Testing of Tissue Specimens Obtained from SARS-CoV-2 Nasopharyngeal Swab-positive Donors

Overview

Journal Cell Tissue Bank

Specialties Anatomy & Histology
Cell Biology
General Surgery

Date 2023 Nov 23

PMID 37995051

Authors

Melissa A Greenwald

Shabnam Namin

Jan Zajdowicz

Alyce Linthurst Jones

Linda Fritts

Matthew J Kuehnert

Christopher J Miller

Gregory Ray

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Risk for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through allogeneic human tissue transplantation is unknown. To further evaluate the risk of virus transmission, tissues were obtained from deceased donors who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA via nasopharyngeal swab. This study evaluated an array of human tissues recovered for transplantation, including bone, tendon, skin, fascia lata, vascular tissues, and heart valves. Tissue samples and plasma or serum samples, if available, were tested for viral RNA (vRNA) using a real time PCR system for the presence of virus RNA. All samples were tested in quadruplicate for both subgenomic (sgRNA) and genomic (gRNA) RNA encoding the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid gene. Amplification of a cellular housekeeping gene served as the positive control for every sample. A total of 47 tissue samples from 17 donors were tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Four donors had plasma or serum available for paired testing. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected from any tissue or plasma/serum sample tested. Based on these findings, risk of transmission through the transplantation of tissue types studied from SARS-CoV-2 infected donors is likely to be low.

Citing Articles

Risk impact of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and spike protein on cardiac tissue: a comprehensive review.

Sery O, Dziedzinska R Physiol Res. 2025; 73(S3):S655-S669.

PMID: 39808169 PMC: 11827061. DOI: 10.33549/physiolres.935476.

References

Botling J, Edlund K, Segersten U, Tahmasebpoor S, Engstrom M, Sundstrom M . Impact of thawing on RNA integrity and gene expression analysis in fresh frozen tissue. Diagn Mol Pathol. 2009; 18(1):44-52. DOI: 10.1097/PDM.0b013e3181857e92. View

Yang J, L Petitjean S, Koehler M, Zhang Q, Dumitru A, Chen W . Molecular interaction and inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 binding to the ACE2 receptor. Nat Commun. 2020; 11(1):4541. PMC: 7486399. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18319-6. View

Lu X, Zhu W, Wu G . Rabies virus transmission via solid organs or tissue allotransplantation. Infect Dis Poverty. 2018; 7(1):82. PMC: 6092857. DOI: 10.1186/s40249-018-0467-7. View

Goer A, Blanchard L, van Belkum A, Loftus K, Armstrong T, Gatermann S . Multicenter Evaluation of the Novel ETEST Fosfomycin for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Enterobacterales, Enterococcus faecalis, and Staphylococcus Species. J Clin Microbiol. 2022; 60(7):e0002122. PMC: 9297813. DOI: 10.1128/jcm.00021-22. View

Lakshmanappa Y, Elizaldi S, Roh J, Schmidt B, Carroll T, Weaver K . SARS-CoV-2 induces robust germinal center CD4 T follicular helper cell responses in rhesus macaques. Nat Commun. 2021; 12(1):541. PMC: 7822826. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20642-x. View

Lindner D, Fitzek A, Brauninger H, Aleshcheva G, Edler C, Meissner K . Association of Cardiac Infection With SARS-CoV-2 in Confirmed COVID-19 Autopsy Cases. JAMA Cardiol. 2020; 5(11):1281-1285. PMC: 7385672. DOI: 10.1001/jamacardio.2020.3551. View

Tugwell B, Patel P, Williams I, Hedberg K, Chai F, Nainan O . Transmission of hepatitis C virus to several organ and tissue recipients from an antibody-negative donor. Ann Intern Med. 2005; 143(9):648-54. DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-143-9-200511010-00008. View

Dzung A, Cheng P, Stoffel C, Tastanova A, Turko P, Levesque M . Prolonged Unfrozen Storage and Repeated Freeze-Thawing of SARS-CoV-2 Patient Samples Have Minor Effects on SARS-CoV-2 Detectability by RT-PCR. J Mol Diagn. 2021; 23(6):691-697. PMC: 7997259. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2021.03.003. View

Sauleda S, Palacios L, Bres V, Pinana M, Alonso-Hernandez L, Bes M . Clinical evaluation of the Procleix SARS-CoV-2 assay, a sensitive, high-throughput test that runs on an automated system. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2021; 102(1):115560. PMC: 8464401. DOI: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2021.115560. View

10.

Trypsteen W, Van Cleemput J, van Snippenberg W, Gerlo S, Vandekerckhove L . On the whereabouts of SARS-CoV-2 in the human body: A systematic review. PLoS Pathog. 2020; 16(10):e1009037. PMC: 7679000. DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009037. View

11.

Koval C, Poggio E, Lin Y, Kerr H, Eltemamy M, Wee A . Early success transplanting kidneys from donors with new SARS-CoV-2 RNA positivity: A report of 10 cases. Am J Transplant. 2021; 21(11):3743-3749. PMC: 8441915. DOI: 10.1111/ajt.16765. View

12.

Penfield C, Brubaker S, Limaye M, Lighter J, Ratner A, Thomas K . Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in placental and fetal membrane samples. Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM. 2020; 2(3):100133. PMC: 7205635. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajogmf.2020.100133. View

13.

Carroll T, Fox D, van Doremalen N, Ball E, Morris M, Sotomayor-Gonzalez A . The B.1.427/1.429 (epsilon) SARS-CoV-2 variants are more virulent than ancestral B.1 (614G) in Syrian hamsters. PLoS Pathog. 2022; 18(2):e1009914. PMC: 8865701. DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009914. View

14.

Kaul D, Valesano A, Petrie J, Sagana R, Lyu D, Lin J . Donor to recipient transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by lung transplantation despite negative donor upper respiratory tract testing. Am J Transplant. 2021; 21(8):2885-2889. PMC: 8014875. DOI: 10.1111/ajt.16532. View

15.

Bradley B, Maioli H, Johnston R, Chaudhry I, Fink S, Xu H . Histopathology and ultrastructural findings of fatal COVID-19 infections in Washington State: a case series. Lancet. 2020; 396(10247):320-332. PMC: 7365650. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31305-2. View

16.

Braun F, Lutgehetmann M, Pfefferle S, Wong M, Carsten A, Lindenmeyer M . SARS-CoV-2 renal tropism associates with acute kidney injury. Lancet. 2020; 396(10251):597-598. PMC: 7431179. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31759-1. View

17.

Gaussen A, Hornby L, Rockl G, OBrien S, Delage G, Sapir-Pichhadze R . Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Cells, Tissues, and Organs and the Risk of Transmission Through Transplantation. Transplantation. 2021; 105(7):1405-1422. DOI: 10.1097/TP.0000000000003744. View

18.

Schwartz N, Hernandez-Romieu A, Annambhotla P, Filardo T, Althomsons S, Free R . Nationwide tuberculosis outbreak in the USA linked to a bone graft product: an outbreak report. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022; 22(11):1617-1625. PMC: 9605268. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00425-X. View

19.

Greenwald M, Kuehnert M, Fishman J . Infectious disease transmission during organ and tissue transplantation. Emerg Infect Dis. 2012; 18(8):e1. PMC: 3414044. DOI: 10.3201/eid1808.120277. View

20.

Bao W, Zhang X, Zhang J, Zhou W, Bi T, Wang J . Biobanking of fresh-frozen human colon tissues: impact of tissue ex-vivo ischemia times and storage periods on RNA quality. Ann Surg Oncol. 2012; 20(5):1737-44. DOI: 10.1245/s10434-012-2440-1. View