Abstract
Clinical data indicate that COVID-19 causes cardiovascular complications, regardless of the severity of the disease. In this work, we have shown that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes vascular dysfunction due to the modification of endothelial cell elasticity. We used human pulmonary endothelial cells (HPAECs) expressing the ACE2 receptor as a model of the endothelium. This system mimics in vivo conditions, as it allows virus entry but not replication. As a reference, we used A549 epithelial cells, a well-described model that supports productive replication of SARS-CoV-2. We show that the infection of HPAECs results in cell stiffening, which correlates with increased polymerization of actin filaments and induction of the inflammatory response. On the contrary, A549 epithelial cells supporting viral replication showed decreased stiffness. We demonstrated the endothelial stiffening effect for four variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus: Wuhan, Alpha, Beta, and Delta. Consequently, we believe that nonproductive SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with stiffening of the endothelium may be clinically relevant and result in dysfunction and damage to this tissue.