Researchers have shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, also spreads through cells in the immune system, and in parallel have found a way to fight it.
The discovery was made by researchers at the Research Institute of Virology and HIV at the 12D Octopray Hospital in Madrid, and their findings were published in the scientific journal Blos Pathogens. This work has been carried out in collaboration with research groups in France – the Institute of Structural Biology in Grenoble – and the University of Italy Tecli Studio de Milano.
Researchers also say that cats need to be included in any precautionary measures against the virus.
The invention of this new mechanism shows that the virus has a key set to enter the cell at its disposal, allowing infection and promoting its proliferation.
Cells, researchers have elaborated, have receptors on their surface that viruses can use to follow them and use a kind of lock, and to achieve this, viruses have an arsenal of proteins that allow them to cross the cell boundary.
In COVID-19, a protein (“spike”) on the surface allows the virus to enter human cells, which, when in contact with an receptor (called ACE2), is usually present in infected cells.
Scientists at the hospital 12D Octopray in Madrid have discovered that this protein interacts with other different receptors and can form a relationship with the family of “lectins” found in immune cells.
This interaction is explained by the fact that the protein “spike” the protein thanks to the sugars on its surface, and when identified they “open the doors and cooperate with the immune response of the infected patient”. Dr. Rafael Delcado, Head of the Department of Microbiology, 12D Octopray University Hospital, Head of the Laboratory of Virology and HIV, and Professor at the University of Complutens.
In addition, the hospital noted that these “lectins” may play a key role in the response to pneumonia in some patients, making it more severe.
Along with the invention of a new transmission mechanism, researchers have found a way to combat it, using molecules that disguise themselves, causing the virus to mimic the appearance of sugars on its surface, causing confusion and frustration.
The results were announced several months ago in an initial way, but using “pseudovirus”, now the results have been confirmed using the real SARS-CoV-2 virus in contact with human respiratory cells.