NEW YORK, September 6. / TASS /. Seasonal viral colds, which can be caused by, for example, “weak” rhinoviruses, can weaken influenza viruses by preventing them from entering the human respiratory tract. This conclusion was reached by scientists, whose article was published by a scientific journal Lancet Microbe.
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For three years, scientists under the guidance of Ellen Foxman, MD, observed 13 thousand patients with viral respiratory diseases. To do this, they synthesized artificial epithelial tissue of the human respiratory tract from stem cells. It is these cells that viruses attack in the first place. As a result, the researchers concluded that no influenza virus was identified when rhinovirus was detected.
“When my colleagues and I analyzed the data from laboratory studies of patients in this group, we found that only a few of them had both the influenza virus and rhinoviruses,” Foxman said. deprived of the envelope, affecting the nasopharynx and trachea – approx. TASS), influenza viruses were unable to infect tissues, which allowed us to conclude that defense mechanisms are activated even before the cells are infected with the influenza virus. “
According to scientists, the presence of rhinovirus triggers the production of the antiviral protein interferon, which is part of the early response of the human immune system to invasion of infection. The effect “accumulated” by rhinoviruses can last about 5 days, experts emphasized.
Now scientists intend to study in a laboratory the process of protecting the body using rhinoviruses and other viruses that cause colds in order to find out the possibility of preventing infection with COVID-19 with their help.
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