Tristan W. Wang

May 14, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Areej Alfaifi |Tristan W. Wang |Paola Pérez |Ahmed Sultan

AbstractSARS-CoV-2 targets salivary glands potentially impacting oral health. We show that presence of replicating viruses in the acinar cells of salivary glands compromises production and secretion of histatin-5, a key host-produced antifungal peptide. The salivary levels of histatin-5 were significantly reduced in SARS-CoV-2 infected subjects, concomitant with enhanced prevalence of the fungal opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans.