Scientists have shown that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect specific cells in the salivary gland in the mouth. The study by researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, National Institutes of Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and their collaborators within the Human Cell Atlas Oral & Craniofacial Network, also discovered that live cells from the mouth were found in saliva, and that the virus was able to reproduce within these infected cells.

The study revealed that salivary gland cells could play a role in transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to the lungs or digestive system via saliva. Understanding the involvement of mouth cells could inform strategies to reduce viral transmission within and outside the body.

Reported today (25 March) in Nature Medicine, this first publication with the HCA Oral & Craniofacial Network is part of the international Human Cell Atlas (HCA) consortium effort to map every cell type in the human body, transforming our understanding of health, infection and disease.

The study could also help explain some of the oral symptoms experienced by COVID-19 patients, including taste loss, dry mouth and blistering.

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