@article {1464, title = {Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived lung epithelial system for SARS-CoV-2 infection modeling and its potential in drug repurposing [Eyestem Research Pvt. Ltd., a C-CAMP Startup]}, journal = {Stem Cells Dev}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Aug 31}, abstract = {

The lung is the most vulnerable target for the SARS-CoV-2 infection and respiratory failure causing Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is its foremost outcome. However, the current primary in vitro models in use for SARS-CoV-2 display apparent limitations for modeling such complex human respiratory disease. While patient cells can directly model the effects of a drug, their availability and capacity for expansion are limited compared to the transformed/immortalized cells or the tumor-derived cell lines. What{\textquoteright}s more, the latter may harbor genetic and metabolic abnormalities in the course of their derivation, making them unsuitable for drug screening. Therefore, it is important to create physiologically relevant human-cell models that can replicate the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2, thus, facilitating drug testing. Here, we show preliminary data on how human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC)-based lung epithelial cell system could emerge as a relevant and sensitive platform for modelling SARS-CoV-2 infection and drug screening.

}, issn = {1557-8534}, doi = {10.1089/scd.2020.0152}, author = {Surendran, Harshini and Nandakumar, Swapna and Pal, Rajarshi} }