Stem cells may hold a key to developing new vaccines against COVID-19 (IMAGE)

Elsevier

Stem cells may hold a key to developing new vaccines against COVID-19

Caption

Schematic representation of the putative altruistic defense of stem cell niche against murine hepatitis virus-1 (MHV-1) infection in dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (dMtb) harboring mice. The viral infection induces enhanced stemness or altruistic stem cell (ASC) reprogramming of lung mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which then expands and secretes yet unknown secretory products/vesicles/antimicrobial peptides to enhance the group fitness of the type II alveolar cells present in the alveolar stem cell niche. The proliferating ASCs then undergo spontaneous apoptosis/differentiation by activating p53 upstream genes involved in apoptosis, thus sacrificing self-fitness, similar to embryonic stem cell-derived ASCs. The dMtb exploits this ASC-based stem cell niche defense for the reactivation of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). HIF, hypoxia-inducible factor.

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The American Journal of Pathology

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