Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jan-Mar;41(1):28-33.
doi: 10.4103/joc.joc_53_23. Epub 2023 Dec 28.

Exploratory Study on Micronuclei and Metanuclear Abnormalities in Exfoliated Buccal Cells of COVID-19 Suspected Patients

B Vishnu  1 , Senthil Murugan  2 , Vinoth K Kalidoss  3 , Kishore Sesham  2 , Sarah Ramamurthy  4 , Satvinder S Bakshi  5 , Yuvaraj M Francis  6 , Sankaran Ponnusamy Kasirajan  2
Affiliations

Exploratory Study on Micronuclei and Metanuclear Abnormalities in Exfoliated Buccal Cells of COVID-19 Suspected Patients

B Vishnu et al. J Cytol. 2024 Jan-Mar.

Abstract

Context: SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19 by infecting nasal and oral cavities primarily by attaching its spike proteins to ACE 2 receptors expressed in epithelial cells.

Aim: This study was done to evaluate the micronucleated cell count, metanuclear abnormalities, and genotoxic factor in exfoliated buccal mucosal cell among the COVID-19 suspected patients.

Settings and design: This cross-sectional study was conducted at AIIMS, Mangalagiri, between August and October 2022.

Methods: One hundred COVID-19 suspected patients were recruited for this study after obtaining informed and written consent; buccal smear was obtained and stained for papanicolaou test (PAP). The PAP-stained slides were analyzed for micronuclei (MN), pyknotic, karyolytic, and karyorrhexic cell count, respectively. Based on their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) report, the patients were grouped into COVID-19 positive and negative groups.

Statistical analysis: The genotoxicity factor was calculated using the micronucleated cell count from both the groups using mean and standard deviation.

Results: The MN, micronucleated cell, pyknotic, karyolitic, and karyorrhexic cell count in COVID-19 positive patients were 24.12, 15.24, 3.08, 2.88 and 4.40, respectively, than COVID-19 negative patients 5.69, 8.17, 1.08, 1.00 and 2.43, respectively. The genotoxicity factor for SARS-CoV-2 was 2.68 which is a positive genotoxic effect on buccal mucosal cells.

Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 increases the expression of micronucleated cells, pyknotic cells, karyolytic cells, and karyorhexic cells and concludes SARS-CoV-2 is having cytogenotoxic effect on the buccal mucosal cells. This can be used as a reliable marker in identifying the early carcinogenic effects of virus causing COVID-19.

Keywords: Buccal mucosal cells; COVID 19; micronuclei.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Exfoliated buccal mucosal cells stained with PAP stain (a) – superficial cells (Black arrow); (a) – keratinized squamous cell (orange arrow); (a) – intermediate cells (blue arrow); (b and c) – Micronucleus (black arrow); (d)- pyknotic nucleus; (e) – karyolitic nucleus; (f) – karyorrhexic nucleus; (g) – binucleated cell
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mitotic division of a cell showing malsegregation of sister chromatids resulting in formation of micronuclei. (a) sister chromatids align and attach to kinetochore; (b) malsegregation of sister chromatids during anaphase; (c) Formation of micronuclei telophase
Figure 3
Figure 3
Possible molecular mechanism in formation of nuclear changes in COVID 19 infection
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. 2022. [[Last accessed on 2022 Oct 24]]. Available from: https://covid19.who.int .
    1. Zhou P, Yang XL, Wang XG, Hu B, Zhang L, Zhang W, et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. 2020;579:270–3. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nakamura T, Hasegawa-Nakamura K, Sakoda K, Matsuyama T, Noguchi K. Involvement of angiotensin II type 1 receptors in interleukin-1b-induced interleukin-6 production in human gingival fibroblasts. Eur J Oral Sci. 2011;119:345–51. - PubMed
    1. Drummond RL, Rhoden CR, Lubicana Neto JF, Fleck ADS, Padoin RCPK, Amantéa SL. Micronucleus count in nasal epithelial cells from patients with chronic rhinosinusitis and polyps. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol. 2020;86:743–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Singh S, Saini M, Yadav AS. Elevated frequencies of micronuclei and other nuclear anomalies in alcoholic subjects. J Entomol Zool Stud. 2015;3:243–5.