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Editorial
. 2020 Sep;477(3):331-333.
doi: 10.1007/s00428-020-02887-5. Epub 2020 Jul 9.

Unlocking the lockdown of science and demystifying COVID-19: how autopsies contribute to our understanding of a deadly pandemic

Affiliations
Editorial

Unlocking the lockdown of science and demystifying COVID-19: how autopsies contribute to our understanding of a deadly pandemic

Alexandar Tzankov et al. Virchows Arch. 2020 Sep.
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Immunohistochemical staining of a lung specimen for SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein with the clone 007 from Sino Biological on an autopsy case from our published cohort [8] showing presence of spiked viruses mainly in the endothelial compartment. The staining has been performed by Mattia Bugatti in the lab of Fabio Facchetti
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Electron microscopic images of patient-derived SARS-CoV-2 obtained from COVID-19-affected individuals of a published cohort from the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland [8] cultured ex vivo in virus-susceptible Vero cells (kidney epithelial cells from Cercopithecus aethiops) from ATCC (https://www.lgcstandards-atcc.org/Products/All/CRL-1586.aspx?geo_country=ch). The image taken at 110,000× magnification shows virus structures of characteristic size (75–120 nm) (1) within membranous intracellular structures of the trans-Golgi apparatus/endoplasmic reticulum with characteristic, (2) nucleocapsid structures on the inner side (~ 20 nm measuring dark dots), and (3) merely perceptible surrounding projections; the presence of all four features being considered diagnostic of coronaviruses. Courtesy of Martin Herzig, Juergen Hench from the Institute of Medical Genetics and Pathology, and Reiner Gosert and Hans Hirsch from the Clinical Virology at the University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Comment on

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