[ad_1]
Few features of Covid-19 have aroused as much interest as anosmia, the sudden loss of smell that has become a well-known feature of the disease. Covid patients lose this feeling even without nasal congestion; The loss can make food taste detrimental, such as the smell of cardboard and coffee, and can sometimes persist after other symptoms have resolved.
scientists now they are starting to unravel the biological mechanismsIt was a mystery: Neurons that sense odors lack the receptors that the coronavirus uses to enter cells, sparking a long debate over whether they can be infected.
Insights from new research can shed new light on how the coronavirus can affect other types of brain cells, leading to conditions such as “brain fog,” and possibly help explain the biological mechanisms behind the long Covid. initial infection.
The new study, along with previous studies, resolves the debate over whether the coronavirus infects nerve cells that detect odors: It doesn’t. However, the researchers found that the virus attacked other supporting cells lining the nasal cavity.
As the infected cells shed the virus and die, immune cells populate the area to fight the virus. The ensuing inflammation damages odor receptors, proteins on the surface of nerve cells in the nose that detect and transmit information about odors.
The researchers reported that the process alters the complex organization of genes in these neurons, essentially shorting them out.
[ad_2]
Source link