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The research team developed a cell culture that they could use to grow SARS-CoV-2. The culture allowed them to actually test the efficacy of the different drugs in the laboratory.
They  determined that a cell type called Vero-E6 was best suited to propagate the coronavirus, and were able to screen 136 drugs using the cell culture.
The screening identified six existing drugs that had some effect, and several combinations of drugs that acted synergistically, the researchers said. The six drugs were nelfinavir, salinomycin, amodiaquine, obatoclax, emetine and homoharringtonine, said Denis Kainov, an associate professor at the university's Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine.

Ref.
Science Daily (2020)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200615140845.htm

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The following are some areas of COVID-19 research that public and academic organizations may investigate using SARS-CoV-2 strains:

Antiviral research: This involves research on the ability of existing or investigational antiviral drugs to cure or prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Development of vaccines:external icon Scientists from the public, business, and academic sectors are continuing to collaborate in order to create safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Learn more about the vaccinations that are currently approved in the United States.

Pathogenesis studies: This involves study into the many methods the virus may be transferred to a host, the severity of sickness it produces in a host, the amount of virus generated in the body, and the organs the virus may spread to inside the body.

Virus stability research: external icon This is a study that shows how long a virus can live under specific settings, such as how long it can live and remain infectious on surfaces and at what temperatures it can live.

Reference:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). SARS-CoV-2 Viral Culturing at CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/grows-virus-cell-culture.html.

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I share with you one of the first protocols of SARS-CoV-2 culture done by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (Bethesda, MD, USA). Hope you find it useful.

Applications:

-          Growing SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell lines for research:

o   Antiviral research.

o   Vaccine development.

o   Pathogenesis research

o   Virus stability research.

-          Culture and testing of antibodies from recovered patients.

-          Determination of live virus shedding phase : when people can infect others.

Methods:

1.       Specimen collection.

Nasopharygeal and oropharyngeal swab especimens ar collected and placed in 2-3 mL of viral transport medium and frozen.

2.       Confirm specimens by PCR-positive.

3.       Aliquot and refreeze specimens.

4.       Cell culture.

-          Use Vero CCL-81 cell line in DMEM supplemented with 5-10% serum.

-          Pippet 50 microL of serum-free DMEM into a well tissue culture plate, then pippet 100 microL of thawed viral specimen.

-          Add 100 microL of our cell suspension to the clinical specimen dilution.

-          Incubate at 37°C, high humidity and 5% CO2.

5.       Virus isolation.

When we observe observed for cytopathic effects (CPEs) in the culture we can harvest and isolate using viral lysate for total nucleic acid extraction

6.       Use virus for any research application!

Reference:
CDC. (2020). https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/6/20-0516_article

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Cell culture advantage

For the study of SARS-CoV-2 it is used the epithelial cells, these epithelial cells cannot be all the same for the research. For that many people donated some cell samples so that it can be study with different genetic background and health conditions. With the variability that is available for the study it was possible to understand the mechanism of infection through the ACE2 receptor.

Also, with the use of different tissues for cell culture (nasal, tracheal, bronchial, etc.) it revealed how vulnerable are some cells.

To produce drugs, some immortal cell line las VeroE6 and Caco-2 were used for their anti-viral properties. With them, they found 90 compounds that can be therapeutically relevant and some antiviral products that can be used to treat and cure Covid19.

DC (2020) SARS-CoV-2 Viral Culturing at CDC. From: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/grows-virus-cell-culture.html

Labclinics (2020) Cell culture tools for COVID-19 Research. From: https://www.labclinics.com/en/cell-culture-tools-for-covid-19-research/

Tay A. (2020) The Promise of Using Cell Cultures To Fight SARS-CoV-2. From: https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/articles/the-promise-of-using-cell-cultures-to-fight-sars-cov-2-342893

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Natural Killer (NK) Cells play an essential roll in our immune system and having active NK cells could make the difference for patients infected with Covid-19 (Basiri, et al., 2021).

A clinical trial (F1) in Hospital de Clinica de Porto Alegre (Silla, 2020 - .) is trying to develop a treatment with intravenous delivery of NK cells in several levels: 1E6 cell/kg body weight (pts. 1-3), 5E6 cell/kg body weight (pts. 4-6), and 1xE7 cell/kg body weight (pts. 7-24).

Altough no publications are listed in the trial and not much literature can be found on NK cell culture for this purpouse (Covid 19); the research is extensive in protocols to culture cells to use against cancer (Bachanova, V., & Miller, J., 2014).

Apparently the world has decided to go for  vaccines as the prevention of more cases, but for people who do get infected not many treatments are available and we're in much need of them (Jewett, A., 2020).

Refs.
Bachanova, V., & Miller, J. (2014).
https://doi.org/10.1615/critrevoncog.2014011091
Basiri et al. (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-020-09994-5
Jewett A. (2020).
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01692
Silla et al. (2020).
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04634370

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Cell culture is a process where the cells grown under controlled conditions and this process can be applied in COVID-19 in order to understand the mechanisms of the infection of the virus. The ability to recreate the respiratory tract and their properties  in cell culture is helpful to study how the virus interacts with the natural host, the symptoms and investigate.
Some investigators performed a knock- out system of genes in the human genome in which are needed for SARS-CoV-2 infection of human alveolar epithelial cell lines.(Cell Science,2020)

References: https://www.labclinics.com/en/cell-culture-tools-for-covid-19-research/

(Cell Science, 2020) https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/articles/the-promise-of-using-cell-cultures-to-fight-sars-cov-2-342893

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One example  of how cell culture is helping in the study against covid-19, is the development of cell therapy processes. The company, NOVOCELLBIO and TecSalud, are working together in the start the natural killer immune cell protocol.
It consists in the autologous cell transplant process.
Cells which are the natural killer, are obteined from the blood of selected patients. Then, insolated, processed and put it back again into the blood stream of the infected patient. NK cells are very important  in controling viral replication, and are part of the fisrt defense line.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.586765
doi.org/10.1038/s41436-020-01077-7.

https://tec.mx/en/news/national/research/tecsalud-will-develop-protocol-cell-therapy-against-covid-19

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Cell culture for covid 19.
Human intestinal organoids have been used, in small versions of the human intestine that can be grown in the laboratory. When the researchers added the virus to the organoids, they quickly became infected. Using electron microscopy, the researchers found virus particles inside and outside the organoid cells. The team also grew the organoids under different conditions that result in cells with higher and lower levels of the ACE2 receptor, through which SARS-CoV-2 can enter cells. To their surprise, they discovered that the virus infected cells with high and low levels of the ACE2 receptor. They also made use of cell cultures to understand the possible routes of entry of the virus to the body, where it was discovered that ACE2 was expressed to a great extent in the mucosa of the oral cavity, especially in the epithelial cells of the tissue of the tongue derived from patients.
References:
Tay, A. (2020). The Promise of Using Cell Cultures To Fight SARS-CoV-2. Available from: Labmedica. (2020). Study Finds SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Infects Human Intestinal Cells. Available from: https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/articles/the-promise-of-using-cell-cultures-to-fight-sars-cov-2-342893
https://www.labmedica.es/covid-19/articles/294782252/estudio-encuentra-que-el-coronavirus-sars-cov-2-infecta-las-celulas-intestinales-humanas.html

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Tissue culture has played a central role in the current pandemic. Starting with the fact that in order for scientists to be able to work with the virus, this one has to be reproduced in a cell culture, as virus are unable to grown in conventional growth media (like bacterias or fungi), along this line studies have suggested that new techniques related with tissue culture such as organoids or organs-on-a-chip may be able to give the researchers a more accurate way or understanding how the virus behaves in a complete organism (in vivo). Similarly other researchers have developed a tissue culture system that allows them to study the way the virus replicates in a safer way, without needing to depend on a BSL-3, this is important because developments like this could make the research about the virus more accesible for other scientists.

Sources:
CDC. (2020). SARS-CoV-2 viral
culturing at CDC. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/grows-virus-cell-culture.html
Lawko, N., Plaskasovitis, et al. (2021). 3D Tissue Models as an Effective Tool for Studying Viruses and Vaccine Development. Frontiers in Materials, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2021.631373
Ju, X., et al.  (2021). A novel cell culture system modeling the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle. PLOS Pathogens, 17(3), e1009439. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009439

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The procedure used to replicate the virus from one of the first diagnosed patients in the US, and store it in public access virus repositories so that other researchers around the world could take advantage of this information is: NP and OP swab specimens were collected; a positive PCR test confirmed presence of the virus. Scientists used Vero E6, Vero CCL-81, HUH 7.0, 293T, A549, and EFKB3 cells with DMEM and heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum and antibiotics/antimycotics. It was found that the cell lines that yielded higher virus replication were Vero-CCL81 cells and Vero E6 cells in the absence of trypsin (similar to previous research that suggested that SARS-CoV grows well on VeroE6 cells and MERS-CoV on Vero CCL81 cells). To further isolate virus, cell monolayers were scrapped when CPEs were observed. Inclusivity tests were performed with real time RT-PCR and genome sequencing.

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Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines used cell line cultures to confirm that their vaccines worked in human cells. Both companies used a cell line called HEK 293.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine also used the HEK 293 line, in this case in the production stage. The creators of this vaccine use this cell line as an incubator in which a modified virus is reproduced, which is then included in the vaccine and helps the human body to train its defenses in case it becomes infected with the real SARS-CoV-2.
The use of human primary airway epithelial cells for SARS-CoV-2 infection studies allows researchers to study how the virus interacts with its natural host. For example a recent publication by Hoffmann et al. from the Pöhlmann laboratory at the German Primate Center has highlighted the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection through the receptor via TMPRSS2. This study investigated using isolated primary bronchial epithelial cells.

References:
Labclinics (2020). Herramientas para cultivo celular para la investigacion de covid-19. Retrived from: https://www.labclinics.com/herramientas-para-cultivo-celular-relevantes-para-la-investigacion-de-covid-19/
BBC News Mundo (2021).

Coronavirus: por qué la Iglesia católica vincula algunas vacunas con el aborto (y qué dice la ciencia al respecto). Retrived from https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-56302053

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Cell culture for Covid-19 investigations.

Immortalized cell lines like HeLa, CHO and Vero cells were used for initial phases of high-throughput drug screening, due to their high growth rate.
Also, for studies that need high amount of sample of the virus, such as testing material of different mask, production of virus particles using immortalizad cell lines is efficient.
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)  have been used to be differentiated to several types of cells to test Covid-19 drugs for investigate adverse effects. Also, iPSCs can be applied to create in vivo biological systems that might help the understanding of drugs interactions inside de body.
Primary cells, like primary leukocytes gotten from patients were necessary for ex vitro studies about antigen recognition and antibody development against SARS-CoV-2.

References:
Tay, A. (2020). The Promise of Using Cell Cultures To Fight SARS-CoV-2. Retrieved from: https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/articles/the-promise-of-using-cell-cultures-to-fight-sars-cov-2-342893

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Orlando Aguilar Rodarte

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Cell culture in Covid-19 infected cells has been really helpful in different areas of the investigation. Some laboratories like CDC are making sure that the virus is widely available for the necessary studies in antiviral research, vaccine development, pathogenesis and virus stability. All of these that are completely fundamental for the fight against SARS-CoV-2.
Reference:
<https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/grows-virus-cell-culture.html >

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The cell culture has been used for ensuring the availability of the virus and help to the development of global studies on the virus. For instance:

The study of the antibody cells in recovered patients by the recovery of serum from them

Determine when the virus transmission has been shed from patients.

The strains for the research purposes can be requested for free from the Biodefense and Emerging Infections Research (BEI) Resources Repository and are provided by CDC and researchers. The strains cultured serve many purposes: Antiviral research: medications that prevent or treat the disease; Vaccine development; Pathogenesis research; Virus stability research: conditions through which the virus can survive.

SARS-CoV-2 Viral Culturing at CDC. (2020). Retrieved 20 May 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/grows-virus-cell-culture.html

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The implementation of fetal cell lines has been used in the production of vaccines, the used are HEK-293 and PER.C6. Not all the vaccines in the market use the cell lines, however, Johnson and Johnson required the use of PER.C6 cell cultures to produce the vaccine.

Reference: https://www.health.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/COVID%20Vaccine%20Page/COVID-19_Vaccine_Fetal_Cell_Handout.pdf

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The Promocell industry provides standardized and characterized human primary cells with compatible cell culture media. Cell lines are usually derived from tumor tissue and show modified gene and protein expression patterns. Consequently the cell lines do not clearly show how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with human tissue. The use of human primary airway epithelial cells for infection studies enables the study of how the SARS-CoV-2 virus interacts with a natural host.
Advantages of using human primary cells:

Wide range of donors available that provide access to primary cells of different genetic backgrounds and health status parameters (for example, donors with COPD or asthma).

Access to cells from various tissue locations (nasal, tracheal, bronchial and respiratory tract).

Bibliography:
PromoCell (2020). Human primary cell culture tools for COVID-19 research from Select Science. 20/05/2021, de Promocell Sitio web: https://www.selectscience.net/industry-news/human-primary-cell-culture-tools-for-covid-19-research-from-promocell/?artID=51588

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SARS-CoV-2, which is the cause of the pandemic, infects human lung alveolar type 2 (hAT2) cells. To research and know how this virus attacks this organ, study models are needed. Tissue culture has made this possible  by helping in the development of a feeder-free, long-term, 3D culture technique for hAT2 cells derived from primary human lung tissue to investigate infection response to SARS-CoV-2. This models can be useful to investigate other respiratory diseases; they were helpful to reveal rapid viral replication and increased expression of some genes in the cells that are known to be proinflammatory.

Source:
Youk, J. et. al. (2020).

Three-Dimensional Human Alveolar Stem Cell Culture Models Reveal Infection Response to SARS-CoV-2.  Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577700/

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Cell culture has played an important role in the study of the mechanisms underlaying SARS-CoV-2 infection and a variety of models have been used but non as frequently as cell culture such as immortalized cell lines, stem cell lines and primary cell lines from patients that are being used as an in vitro models to fully understand how viral particles entry into its host, human cells. Also it is known that cell culture has been very useful for drug screening purposes when wanting to generate viral particles for testing as a promising fight against the pandemic (Tay, 2020).
On the other hand, it results interesting that Hoffmann et al. from the German Primate Center "Pöhlmann" has stated that a promising technology of advanced cell culture for fast development of efficient treatment is the use of Organ on Chip in combination with rapid cell based screening assays which is a great example of the importance of celll culture (PromoCell, 2020).

References

PromoCell. (2020).

Clinically Relevant Cell Culture Tools for COVID-19 Research. [online]. Available from: https://promocell.com/blog/clinically-relevant-cell-culture-tools-for-covid-19-research/. [Accessed 20th May 2021]

Tay, A. (2020). The Promise of using Cell Cultures To Fight SARS-CoV-2. [online]. Available from: https://www.technology
networks.com/cell-science/articles/the-promise-of-using-cell-cultures-to-fight-sars-cov-2-342893. [Accessed 20th May 2021]

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Cell culture for group screening.
Cell culture was invaluable to identify therapeutics capable of inhibiting entry and replication of SARS-CoV-2. Touret made a study where 1520 FDA approved drugs were screened in vitro for their anti-viral properties using VeroE6 and Caco-2 immortalized cell lines. As a result, 90 compounds were identifies as therapeutically relevant.
Daniloski in order to identify which genes are needed for SARS-CoV-2 infection they performed a knock-out screening of genes in the human genome. They found that this genes encode the vacuolar ATpase proton pump and Arp2/3 complex.
Prof. Tudor Oprea used in vitro cell culture and computational analysis to screen 4,000 drugs and they identified zuclopenthixol and nebivolol blocked COVID-19 infection.
(Tay, 2020).
Reference:
Tay, A.. (2020). The Promise of Using Cell Cultures To Fight SARS-CoV-2. , de Technology Networks Sitio web: https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/articles/the-promise-of-using-cell-cultures-to-fight-sars-cov-2-342893

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Paloma Moreno Gómez "NK Cells against Covid-19"

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Paloma Moreno Gómez "NK Cells against Covid-19"

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Researchers from all around the globe are studying the processes driving SARS-CoV-2 infection as the worldwide COVID-19 epidemic progresses.
According to Van Eeden and colleagues (2020). Preliminary research in COVID-19 patients with severe illness reveals a decrease in NK cell quantity and function, leading to a reduction in infected and activated cell clearance and unregulated rise of tissue-damaging inflammatory markers. Natural killer (NK) cells modulate the immune response and are the first line of defense against acute infection and malignancy.
What is the mechanism behind it?
NK cells are extracted from a patient's blood, are isolated, processed, and then re-infused back into their system.The restoration of NK cell effector capabilities has the potential to modify the delicate immunological balance needed to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection efficiently. When NK cells are activated, they produce cytotoxic degranulation and inflammatory cytokines, which destroy target cells.
References: González, S. (2021). Tec Salud will develop a protocol for cell therapy against covid-19. Retrieved from: https://tec.mx/en/news/national/research/tecsalud-will-develop-protocol-cell-therapy-against-covid-19
van Eeden, C., Khan, L., Osman, M. S., & Cohen Tervaert, J. W. (2020). Natural Killer Cell Dysfunction and Its Role in COVID-19. International journal of molecular sciences, 21(17), 6351. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21176351

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Primary cell culture from patients of SARS-COV-2 is extremely important but also extremely complicated. Optimal media for this use is not commercially available. Gorwing primary leukocytes on the other hand is an option, and it is of great help because researchers working on COVID can fully understand how the immune recognition and antigen production works. In other words, ex vivo leukocytes production helps us understand how the body reacts when in contact to this virus.
Source: Tay PhD, A., 2020. The Promise of Using Cell Cultures To Fight SARS-CoV-2. [online] Technology Networks. Available at: <https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/articles/the-promise-of-using-cell-cultures-to-fight-sars-cov-2-342893> [Accessed 20 May 2021].

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Certain techniques of cell culture are being very useful tools for studying and developing treatments for COVID-19, human primary epithelial cells have been used for infection studies and this have allowed to study how the virus interacts with a natural host, on the other hand, studying the virus in cell lines unables to give a true insight into how COVID  interacts with human tissue because of the fact that that cell lines are often derived form tumor tissue and displays modified gene and protein expression patterns. So, the most useful tool of cell culture may be using human primary cells, because of the wide range of available donors that give access to primary cells from different genetic backgrounds, the access to cells from various tissue localization, and a large stock inventory so researchers can plan multiple experiments using the same donor and media reagents.

Reference:
Li, D. (2020). Human primary cell culture tools for COVID-19 research from PromoCell. May 20, 2021, de SelectScience22 Sitio web: https://www.selectscience.net/industry-news/human-primary-cell-culture-tools-for-covid-19-research-from-promocell/?artID=51588

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The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has promoted the design and development of several investigations oriented towards discovering a feasible cure for this viral infection. For instance, the application of plant tissue culture techniques has a noteworthy potential for the obtention of secondary metabolites that can be used to produce treatments due to the antiviral properties of phytochemicals. Such is the case of a recent investigation in which it was reported that the  glycyrrhizin extracted from the roots of Glycyrrhiza glabra has anti-coronavirus activity (Khan et al., 2021). On the other hand, animal cell tissue culture also has a crucial role within this research arena due to the fact that there is no other way to propagate viruses without a host cell (Wurtz et al., 2021). Likewise, the use of cell lines, such as Caco-2 cells, Huh7 cells, and Vero E6 cells is of utmost importance to test the efficacy of potential drugs, vaccine mechanisms as well as the cytotoxicity of these treatments to guarantee that they can be safely applied in clinical trials (Takayama, 2020). Accordingly, there is an ocean of opportunities regarding the use of tissue culture techniques to study and understand the viral cycle and medication of SARS-CoV-2, and perhaps researchers will find a key answer very soon using these methodologies.

References

Khan, T., Khan, M. A., Karam, K., Ullah, N., Mashwani, Z. U., & Nadhman, A. (2021). Plant in vitro Culture Technologies; A Promise Into Factories of Secondary Metabolites Against COVID-19. Frontiers in plant science, 12, 610194. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.610194

Takayama K. (2020). In Vitro and Animal Models for SARS-CoV-2 research. Trends in pharmacological sciences, 41(8), 513–517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2020.05.005

Wurtz, N., Penant, G., Jardot, P., Duclos, N., & La Scola, B. (2021). Culture of SARS-CoV-2 in a panel of laboratory cell lines, permissivity, and differences in growth profile. European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 40(3), 477–484. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-020-04106-0

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The Cell culture and its techniques are widely used in the study of diseases. In this case for the Covid-19 can be found uses both for its study and in the development of vaccines. In order to observe how's the covid works into the cells labs uses human primary airway epithelial cells for infection studies with SARS-CoV-2 that allows researchers to study how the virus interacts with its natural host. This point allows create conditions to obtain a potencial vaccine. Cell culture has proved useful in understanding the fundamental molecular and physical processes that allow cells to assemble into tissues and organs, how tissues to function, and how tissues respond to diseases and treatment with drugs (Duval et al., 2017; Kapałczyńska et al., 2018).

Example:
The bioreactor used to engineer tissues for the co-culture of human broncho-tracheal cell lines and human broncho-epithelial cells. (A) Confluent cells grown in 2D are combined with media and microcarrier beads in the bioreactor (B) The biorector was used in other studies to form tissue aggregates. It is kept in continuous rotation to prevent detachment and accumulation of cells at the bottom of the bioreactor. (Gardner and Herbst-Kralovetz, 2016).
References:
Duval, K., Grover, H., Han, L. H., Mou, Y., Pegoraro, A. F., Fredberg, J., et al. (2017). Modeling physiological events in 2D vs. 3D cell culture. Physiology 32, 266–277. doi: 10.1152/physiol.00036.2016
Gardner, J. K., and Herbst-Kralovetz, M. M. (2016). Three-dimensional rotating wall vessel-derived cell culture models for studying virus-host interactions. Viruses 8:304. doi: 10.3390/v8110304
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30002710/

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Cell culture for Covid 19.

A recent publication from the Pöhlmann lab at the German Primate Center in Göttingen, in cooperation with the Robert Koch Institute and the Drosten lab at Charité have discovered the mechanism of infection of the virus SARS-CoV-2 through the receptor SARS-Cov ACE2, this investigation was posible by the use of bronchial epithelial cells that were isolated using the PromoCell's Airway Epithelial Basal Medium, they research this cells in specific because the epithelial cells located in the respiratory tract form a physical barrier against pathogens. The study mentioned earlier suggests that the antibodies markers present in this cell line may offer protection against the Covid 19 virus.
Reference:
https://www.labclinics.com/en/cell-culture-tools-for-covid-19-research/

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As the COVID 19 pandemic has progressed, scientists have tried to investigate how this disease affects the organism of human beings. One study found that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, can infect cells in the intestine and multiply there. Which could explain why a third of COVID-19 patients experience gastrointestinal symptoms. With these hypotheses, researchers from the Hubrecht Institute (Utrecht, The Netherlands), the Erasmus MC University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and the University of Maastricht (Maastricht, The Netherlands) set out to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus can directly infect the cells of the intestine. The team required a cell culture system, where using cell culture models of the human intestine they were able to successfully propagate the virus in vitro, thus providing a new cell culture model for the study of COVID-19.

Reference:
LabMedica. (2020).

Estudio encuentra que el coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infecta las células intestinales humanas. LabMedica. Recuperado de: https://www.labmedica.es/covid-19/articles/294782252/estudio-encuentra-que-el-coronavirus-sars-cov-2-infecta-las-celulas-intestinales-humanas.html