Abstract The emergence of the new corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic requires fast development of novel prevention and therapeutic strategies. These rely on understanding the biology of the virus and its interaction with the host, and on agnostic phenotypic screening for compounds that prevent viral infection. In vitro screenings of compounds are usually performed in human or animal-derived tumor or immortalized cell lines due to their ease of culturing. However, these platforms may not represent the tissues affected by the disease in vivo, and therefore better models are needed to validate and expedite drug development, especially in face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this scenario, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are a powerful research tool due to their ability to generate normal differentiated cell types relevant for the disease. Here we discuss the different ways hiPSCs can contribute to COVID-19 related research, including modeling the disease in vitro and serving as a platform for drug screening.

中文翻译：

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人类诱导多能干细胞作为 COVID-19 疾病建模和药物筛选的工具

摘要 新型冠状病毒 (SARS-CoV-2) 的出现和由此产生的 COVID-19 大流行需要快速开发新的预防和治疗策略。这些依赖于对病毒生物学及其与宿主相互作用的了解，以及对预防病毒感染的化合物的不可知表型筛选。由于易于培养，通常在人或动物来源的肿瘤或永生化细胞系中进行化合物的体外筛选。然而，这些平台可能不能代表体内受疾病影响的组织，因此需要更好的模型来验证和加快药物开发，尤其是面对 COVID-19 大流行。在这种情况下，人类诱导多能干细胞 (hiPSC) 是一种强大的研究工具，因为它们能够产生与疾病相关的正常分化细胞类型。在这里，我们讨论了 hiPSC 可以为 COVID-19 相关研究做出贡献的不同方式，包括在体外对疾病进行建模和作为药物筛选平台。