Dear Colleagues,

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, the well-known illness responsible for the ongoing pandemic, which is related to SARS-CoV-1, the aetiologic agent of the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. Just like its predecessor, SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is highly contagious in humans; it mainly enters human cells by binding to angiotensin converting enzyme 2 receptors. First identified in the city of Wuhan (Hubei, China), the World Health Organization declared its diffusion a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The virus primarily spreads between people through close contact and via aerosols and respiratory droplets that are exhaled when talking, breathing, or otherwise exhaling, as well as those produced from coughs or sneezes. Once in contact with human cells, it gives rise to direct and indirect cytohistological alterations of varying severity, affecting several organs or systems, such as the lungs (oedema, interstitial pneumonia, fungal superinfection, diffuse alveolar damage, and scarring fibrosis), blood vessels (endotheliitis, vasculitis, thrombosis, and disseminated intravascular coagulation), heart (myocarditis, pericarditis, and infarction), primary/secondary lymphatic organs (spleen white pulp depletion, immunodepression, herpetic reactivations, naked megakaryocyte nuclei increase, hemophagocytosis, and leukoerythroblastic reaction), skin (pityriasis rosea), liver (fulminant hepatitis and microvesicular steatosis), pancreas (autoimmune pancreatitis), gastrointestinal tract (vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain), kidney (acute tubular damage), and brain (stroke, olfactory epithelium shedding, and demyelination). The aim of this Special Issue is to collect research articles (original articles, reviews, case reports, and short communications) addressing the cytohistology of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans with clinical–pathological correlations, and novel interactions between SARS-CoV-2 and other microorganisms with anatomopathological implications.

Prof. Dr. Luca Roncati
Guest Editor

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• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2)
• coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• pathology
• histopathology
• histology
• cytopathology
• cytology
• morphology