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The attacker stalks its prey with stealth and precision as it prepares to pierce its prey’s armor. Once inside, the attacker forces the host to spawn more intruders and then causes it to explode, repelling a large number of invaders that can wreak havoc on a larger scale.
The drama, shown in a microscopic video of SARS-CoV-2 infecting bat brain cells, provides a window into how the pathogen turns cells into virus-producing factories before causing the host cell to die.
The video was produced by virologists Sophie-Marie Aicher and Delphine Planas, who won a microscopic honorable mention at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. video contest sponsored by the photography company Nikon.
With an image recorded every 10 minutes, the images taken over the course of 48 hours show the coronavirus as red dots circulating among a mass of gray spots, which are the bat’s brain cells. Once infected, the bat’s cells begin to fuse with neighboring cells. At some point, the entire mass explodes, resulting in the death of cells.
Ms. Aicher, an expert in zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, said this contagious juggernaut is the same in bats and humans, with one important distinction: Bats don’t get sick after all.
In humans, the coronavirus can avoid detection and, in part, cause further damage by preventing infected cells from alerting the immune system to the presence of invaders. But its special strength is its ability to force host cells to fuse with neighboring cells; this is a process known as insidious, which allows the corona virus to remain undetected as it multiplies.
“Every time the virus has to leave the cell, it’s at risk of being detected, so if it can go directly from one cell to another, it can run much faster,” said Ms. Aicher.
He said he hopes the video will help unravel the mystery of the virus and make it easier for people to understand and appreciate this devious foe that has upended billions of lives.
“It’s important to help people get past the scientific jargon so they understand that this is a very complex and intelligent virus that is well adapted to make people sick,” he said.
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