Lassa fever (LF), caused by Lassa virus (LASV) infection, typically leads to mild symptoms in humans, yet some survivors experience audiovestibular problems. Here we present vestibular histopathological insights in our LF model mice. We observed: 1) hemorrhage within the vestibular ganglion and stroma beneath the sensory epithelium, 2) preserved hair cells and supporting cells, 3) LASV antigen presence in the vestibular ganglion cells and the stroma beneath the sensory epithelium, and 4) CD3-positive T lymphocyte infiltration in the vestibular ganglion and the stroma underlying the sensory epithelium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: With altered sense of taste being a common symptom of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), our objective was to investigate the presence and distribution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) within the tongue over the course of infection.
Methods: Golden Syrian hamsters were inoculated intranasally with SARS-CoV-2 and tongues were collected at 2, 3, 5, 8, 17, 21, 35, and 42 days post-infection (dpi) for analysis. In order to test for gross changes in the tongue, the papillae of the tongue were counted.