Researchers assess human organ models in global COVID-19 research; reduces cross-study comparability and reliability
Researchers assess human organ models in global COVID-19 research; reduces cross-study comparability and reliability Low reporting quality limits the contribution of human organ models to COVID-19 research: a systematic review Low reporting quality limits the contribution of human organ models to COVID-19 research: a systematic review Authors - Maren Hülsemann - Silke Kniffert - Anna Löwa - Morris Baumgardt - Katja Hönzke - Valeria Fernandez Vallone - Natascha I. Drude - Thomas Stüdemann - Ahmed S.M. Ali - Maria Arroyo Araujo - Alexandra Bannach-Brown - Linda Brunotte - Aileen Faist - Diana Fatykhova - Mara Fischer - Lina Hellwig - Saskia Hinse - Mirjana Kessler - Benjamin G. Carlisle - Sadaf Khankeh - Ishminder Singh Dhamrait - Charlotte Klein - Hristina Koceva - Sriram Kumar - Jens Kurreck - Katarzyna A. Ludwik - Philipp Mergenthaler - Sarah S. Schmerbeck - Sameer Singh - Luiz Gustavo Teixeira Alves - Emanuel Wyler - Harald Stachelscheid - Stefan Hippenstiel - Ulf Toelch - Andreas C. Hocke Journal - EBioMedicine Citation - EBioMedicine 130: 106392 Abstract BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique situation in which researchers repurposed human models of varying complexity to investigate SARS-CoV-2, providing the opportunity to analyse their contribution across organs. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of 558 studies, divided into pandemic and post-pandemic periods, to assess how human models were applied to investigate host factors, viral replication of SARS-CoV-2, immune responses, and to evaluate reporting quality. FINDINGS: Our analysis revealed substantial limitations that were only partially alleviated in post-pandemic studies. These limitations included heterogeneity of outcome measures, incomplete documentation of model characteristics and experimental procedures, and variable reporting quality, which were associated with reduced cross-study comparability, more difficult risk-of-bias assessment, and limited reliability and interpretability of evidence synthesis and meta-analytical results. INTERPRETATION: Strengthening community-driven reporting standards and methodological transparency is essential to enable robust evidence synthesis and to fully realise the potential of human organ models in future pandemics and translational research.