The main transmission path of the coronavirus is droplet infection. A new study wants to show how the viruses penetrate the body - it does not happen via the mouth!
- A face mask * must cover the mouth and nose for a reason.
- Coronaviruses enter the body via the respiratory tract and can cause severe pneumonia there.
- Researchers have now found out which entry points the viruses prefer to use to enter the body.
For their knowledge, Yixuan Hou and his research team from the University of North Carolina prepared corona viruses in Chapel Hill. Using genetic engineering, the scientists constructed a green fluorescent variant of the virus by implanting a shimmering green protein in the genome. In experiments, the researchers were able to better understand which path the virus prefers to take into the body .
Cilia and ACE2 receptors: These cells make it easier for the coronavirus to penetrate
It has been observed that Sars-CoV-2 usually hits the nasal mucosa first and thus gets into the airways. The result is hardly surprising: First of all, you breathe in the ambient air through your nose and not through your mouth. But there is also a scientific explanation: According to the study authors , viruses should prefer certain cilia-bearing cells in the nasal mucosa because they have a relatively high number of ACE2 receptors. The viruses get into the cells * via these receptors and can multiply and spread there.
Since there are a particularly large number of receptors in the nasal mucosa , the virus can dock particularly well here - even better than in the throat, bronchi and alveoli . Hou and his team concluded this by observing the fluorescent corona viruses.
Previous studies have also shown that the cilia cells, which are equipped with cilia, offer the virus a particularly large number of entry points if they have a high concentration of ACE2 receptors, as reported in the daily mirror. According to Bernd Salzberger, director of infectious diseases at Regensburg University Hospital, an infection with coronaviruses through the nasal mucosa should be more plausible than a direct infection of the bronchial mucosa. "However, this does not and cannot be concluded that a direct infection of the lungs does not also occur, " says Salzberger.
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