SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect the inner earđź‘‚
Many Covid-19 patients have reported symptoms affecting the ears, such as hearing loss and tinnitus. Dizziness and balance problems can also occur, suggesting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may infect the inner ear.
A new study from MIT and Massachusetts Eye and Ear provides evidence that the virus can infect cells of the inner ear, including hair cells, which are critical for both hearing and balance. The researchers also found that the infection pattern observed in human inner ear tissue is consistent with symptoms seen in a study of 10 Covid-19 patients who reported a variety of ear-related symptoms.
The researchers used new cell models of the human inner ear they developed, as well as difficult-to-obtain adult human inner ear tissue, for their studies. The limited availability of such tissue has hampered previous studies of Covid-19 and other viruses that can cause hearing loss.
Konstantina Stankovic, former associate professor at Harvard Medical School and former chief of otology and neurotology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, who is now a professor at the Bertarelli Foundation and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at the School of Medicine from Stanford University, co-led the study. Minjin Jeong, a former postdoc in Stankovic's lab at Harvard Medical School, now at Stanford Medical School, is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in Communications Medicine.
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