SARS-CoV-2 causes DNA damage, cellular senescence and inflammation

Our findings reveal the profound impact that SARS-CoV-2 infection has on cellular biology, threatening the most important cellular constituent: nuclear DNA. The accumulation of DNA damage is known to be associated with cancer and aging1. Although the long-term consequences of severe COVID-19 on lung cancer incidence are unknown at present, accelerated aging phenotypes have been reported2,3. Our results may provide a mechanistic explanation for post-COVID-19 syndromes with hastened aging features, to which the establishment of cellular senescence and the triggering of inflammatory processes might be a crucial contributing factor. Indeed, chronic inflammation is thought to be the underlying cause of lung fibrosis4, brain degeneration5 and overall frailty. Thus, local events initially restricted to the respiratory system may have systemic consequences.

Our study does not exclude the possibility that additional viral gene products also threaten genome stability by hitherto unknown mechanisms. Moreover, whether the mechanisms described here are altered in the various SARS-CoV-2 variants remains unknown. In the future, it will be interesting to explore the possibility of exploiting the altered nucleotide metabolism of SARS-CoV-2-infected cells to develop anti-viral strategies or interventions aimed at taming the cellular consequences of COVID-19.

Fabrizio d’Adda di Fagagna 1,2

1The AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM ETS), Milan, Italy.

2Institute of Molecular Genetics (IGM), National Research Institute (CNR), Pavia, Italy.

留言 (0)

沒有登入
gif