• Loredana Bury, Barbara Camilloni, Roberto Castronari, Elisa Piselli, Marco Malvestiti, Mariachiara Borghi, Haripriya KuchiBotla, Emanuela Falcinelli, Eleonora Petito, Felice Amato, Ugo Paliani, Gaetano Vaudo, Vittorio Cerotto, Fabio Gori, Cecilia Becattini, Edoardo De Robertis, Teseo Lazzarini, Giuseppe Castaldo, Antonella Mencacci, and Paolo Gresele.
• Department of Medicine and Surgery, Section of Internal and Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
• Platelets. 2021 Feb 17; 32 (2): 284-287.

AbstractThe frequent finding of thrombocytopenia in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) and previous evidence that several viruses enter platelets suggest that SARS-CoV-2 might be internalized by platelets of COVID-19. Aim of our study was to assess the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in platelets from hospitalized patients with aconfirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. RNA was extracted from platelets, leukocytes and serum from 24 COVID-19 patients and 3 healthy controls, real-time PCR and ddPCR for viral genes were carried out. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in any of the samples analyzed nor in healthy controls, by either RT-PCR or ddPCR, while RNA samples from nasopharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients were correctly identified. Viral RNA was not detected independently of viral load, of positive nasopharyngeal swabs, or viremia, the last detected in only one patient (4.1%). SARS-CoV-2 entry in platelets is not acommon phenomenon in COVID-19 patients, differently from other viral infections.

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