Overview
- Researchers from Mount Sinai, the Bernhard Nocht Institute and collaborators reported in Nature Microbiology that Ebola and related filoviruses replicated and produced infectious virus in human cerebral organoids for up to 120 days.
- The virus infected multiple central nervous system cell types in the organoids, including neurons, astrocytes and microglia, and spread both cell‑to‑cell and by budding.
- Organoids mounted a pro‑inflammatory response that failed to clear the infection, which provides a plausible mechanism for late inflammatory disease seen in some survivors such as meningitis or eye inflammation.
- The team observed defective viral genomes and new mutations emerging during prolonged replication, a pattern that could help the virus persist in weakened but infectious forms.
- Authors caution these are laboratory model results that require in‑person clinical and epidemiological validation but say the work could guide survivor monitoring, antiviral testing and studies of other filoviruses.