Lung transplantation can potentially be a life-saving treatment for patients with non-resolving COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome. Concerns limiting transplant include recurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the allograft, technical challenges imposed by viral-mediated injury to the native lung, and potential risk for allograft infection by pathogens associated with ventilator-induced pneumonia in the native lung. Additionally, the native lung might recover, resulting in long-term outcomes preferable to transplant. Here, we report the results of the first two successful lung transplantation procedures in patients with non-resolving COVID-19 associated acute respiratory distress syndrome in the United States. We performed smFISH to detect both positive and negative strands of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the explanted lung tissue, extracellular matrix imaging using SHIELD tissue clearance, and single cell RNA-Seq on explant and warm post-mortem lung biopsies from patients who died from severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Lungs from patients with prolonged COVID-19 were free of virus but pathology showed extensive evidence of injury and fibrosis which resembled end-stage pulmonary fibrosis. Single cell RNA-Seq of the explanted native lungs from transplant and paired warm post-mortem autopsies showed similarities between late SARS-CoV-2 acute respiratory distress syndrome and irreversible end-stage pulmonary fibrosis requiring lung transplantation. There was no recurrence of SARS-CoV-2 or pathogens associated with pre-transplant ventilator associated pneumonias following transplantation in either patient. Our findings suggest that some patients with severe COVID-19 develop fibrotic lung disease for which lung transplantation is the only option for survival.
Single sentence summary: Some patients with severe COVID-19 develop end-stage pulmonary fibrosis for which lung transplantation may be the only treatment.