Background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients exhibit multiple organ malfunctions with a primary manifestation of acute and diffuse lung injuries. The Spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is crucial to mediate viral entry into host cells; however, whether it can be cellularly pathogenic and contribute to pulmonary hyper-inflammations in COVID-19 is not well known.
Conclusions
Our results demonstrate that the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 alone can induce cellular pathology, e.g. activating macrophages and contributing to induction of acute inflammatory responses.