SARS-CoV-2 infects brain choroid plexus, compromises CSF-blood barrier; plus Passage’s GM1 gangliosidosis gene therapy, a new COVID-19 reporter and more

SARS-CoV-2 infects brain choroid plexus
A team from Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) have found that SARS-CoV-2 infects the CSF-producing brain choroid plexus — but not neurons or glia — and disrupts the blood-CSF barrier in human brain organoids. The report in Cell Stem Cell, which also showed higher ACE2 expression in the choroid plexus than in the brain cortex, contrasts with a study led by Yale University’s Akiko Iwasaki that had shown using postmortem brain tissue and human brain organoids that the virus can infect neurons.

Passage’s GM1 gangliosidosis gene therapy
Passage Bio Inc. (NASDAQ:PASG) co-founder James Wilson’s team at  University of Pennsylvania has published mouse data backing the biotech’s Phase I/II trial of PBGM01 to treat GM1 gangliosidosis. In a Human Gene Therapy article, the Penn group revealed that a single intracerebroventricular injection of PBGM01 improved motor and neurological performance and survival, and reduced neuronal lysosomal storage lesions, a disease marker. Passage plans to begin dosing patients in this quarter or next and said it remains on track for initial safety and biomarker data in 1H21...