March 26, 2020

This Zebin et al paper was published in SSRN showing that the Coronavirus strain causing the current COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, can abolish human induced pluripotent stem cell pluripotency. Mutant cells lost pluripotency markers SSEA4 and TRA-1-81 and caused them to turn into fibroblasts. While the mechanism is unclear, SARS-CoV-2 may suppress the key pluripotency gene’s translation through occupying the particular sites of RNAs.