Covid-19 particles could use a protein present in red blood cells to spread throughout the body, beyond the respiratory system, according to a study carried out by researchers from the Pasteur Institute of Montevideo, the University of the Republic and the University of Buenos Aires. Aires.
The research, recently published in the scientific journal Cell Death and Diseasepoints out the ability of the virus to reach distant tissues and organs through the bloodas well as its role in severe and multisystem cases of the aforementioned disease.
The Uruguayan virologist Gonzalo Moratorio, highlighted by Nature in 2020 as one of the ten most relevant scientists in the world and a participant in the study, assures in an interview with the EFE Agency that the discovery opens the door to new therapeutic treatments in advanced coronavirus patients. Sars-CoV-2.
From mice to humans
The scientific team experimented with a murine coronavirus, which naturally infects mice and – unlike humans – it attacks the liver in the first instance, with the aim of studying the relationship between the virus and its host naturally.
According to Moratorio, discovering that mouse viral particles are associated with red blood cells “was a first clue to understand how the virus can navigate between tissues and cells and end up causing – many times – multi-organ or systemic failures.”
To understand possible similarities with the coronavirus that affects people, the results were compared with data from human autopsies.
“We are looking for points of convergence, similarities between one system and another, to be able to expand our findings and test tomorrow whether these can be effective on viruses of human relevance,” explains the virologist.
One of the coincidences was the presence of the spike protein (spikein English), objective of vaccines against the coronavirus, which is located in the envelope of the virus and allows its binding to specific receptors in host cells.
The researchers discovered that the murine pathology preferentially binds to hemoproteins; responsible for transporting oxygen to all organs, and which are also present on the surface of the spikes of the human coronavirus.
This could facilitate the spread of the disease and be a route for systemic invasion throughout the organism, according to the researchers, since the virus uses fundamental cells in all systems and organs to be able to spread in its most virulent states.
“Mechanisms like this can be replicated in other types of infection, not necessarily associated with proteins, but with other cellular components that allow the pathogen to spread,” says the Uruguayan.
Therapeutic paradigm shift
Scientists estimate that the severity of the disease can be reduced by targeting treatment directly at the hemoproteins.
These results open the door to a change in the therapeutic approach that focuses on mitigate this expansion of the virus, instead of alleviating the symptoms of thiswhich is what is done until now.
“Can open the door to new therapies in patients who are entering a state of severity,” says Moratorio.
These types of discoveries, says the virologist, serve to begin to consider these mechanisms as possible pathways used by different pathogens.
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