Fig. 3

Human OM-ALI from AD and cognitively healthy individuals have similar susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. a, b Representative image of OM-ALIs at 72 hpi with SARS-CoV-2 (1 × 105 PFU). Immunostaining was done with SARS-CoV-2 NP (nucleocapsid protein); acetylated tubulin (ciliated cell marker); MUC5AC (goblet cell marker). Imaged on 10 × objective; scale bar 100 µm. c Quantification of the OM-ALIs at 72 hpi with SARS-CoV-2 (1 × 105 PFU) immunostainings representing the percentages of SARS-CoV-2 NP, Act-tubulin; MUC5AC in control and AD cells. Graph shows mean with SD of n = 3 for both control and AD cells. Unpaired two-tailed t-test. *Indicates p-values ≤ 0.05. d Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies released from the infected control and AD OM-ALIs at 1, 48, and 72 hpi. Graph shows mean with SD of n = 3 donors for both control and AD OM-ALIs. **Indicates p-values ≤ 0.01, ***indicates p-values ≤ 0.001 by two-way ANOVA with Tukey multiple comparison. e) Normalized filtered counts of genes for key receptors and proteins involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection obtained from bulk mRNA sequencing of mock and infected OM-ALI cultures from control and AD. Graph shows mean with SD of n = 3 for both control and AD cells. Ordinary two-way ANOVA test; # indicates the disease effect and p-values ≤ 0.05