The spike proteins that the coronavirus uses to help it penetrate cells also inflict other damage, according to a new study that highlights the many ways that COVID-19 attacks organs other than the lungs.
The spike proteins themselves cause direct damage to the cells that line blood vessels, scientists found in experiments conducted in test tubes with a modified version of the spike and cells that line the arteries obtained from mice.
After attaching itself to the ACE2 protein in healthy cells, the spike interrupts ACE2 signaling to the mitochondria – the energy-generating structures of the cell -, causing them to become damaged, the researchers reported in Circulation Research.
“A vascular disease”
COVID-19 is actually a disease of the blood vessels, co-author Uri Manor of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, said in a statement.
“Many people think it is a respiratory disease, but it is actually a vascular disease,” said Professor Manor.
The new findings could help explain blood clots associated with COVID-19. They could also explain “why some people have strokes and why others have problems in other parts of the body,” Manor said. “What they have in common is that they all have a vascular background.”
The Salk researchers collaborated with scientists at the University of California, San Diego on the work, including first author, Jiao Zhang, and second author, John Shyy, among others.
Although the findings in themselves are not entirely a surprise, the article provides clear confirmation and a detailed explanation of the mechanism through which the protein damages vascular cells for the first time.
There is a growing consensus that SARS-CoV-2 affects the vascular system, but exactly how it did this was not known. Similarly, scientists studying other coronaviruses have long suspected that the spike protein contributes to damage to vascular endothelial cells, but this is the first time the process has been documented.
FEW (Reuters, Circulation Research)
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
No room for the deceased
India reported more than 3,200 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday (04.28.2021), the highest number in a single day since the pandemic began. The total death toll exceeds 200,000, with cities no longer having space to bury or incinerate the victims.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
Waiting for oxygen
An older woman, suffering from breathing difficulties due to COVID-19, waits in front of a temple to receive free oxygen on the outskirts of New Delhi.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
Informal health services
Hospitals in Delhi and across the country are not accepting patients after filling up and running out of oxygen. Many have announced that they are overwhelmed. This Sikh temple looks like a hospital ward. Many people in the Indian capital improvise health spaces outside the hospitals.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
Health care anywhere
A healthcare worker measures the oxygen level of a COVID patient inside an ambulance. As people are forced to wait hours for treatment, doctors have been treating people in cars and taxis parked in front of hospitals.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
Beg for oxygen
A couple waits until they can receive treatment for COVID-19. Social media and local media have captured images of desperate relatives begging for oxygen outside hospitals or crying over the deaths of deceased loved ones while awaiting treatment.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
Mourning india
A young man mourns in a crematorium for the loss of his father, who died of COVID-19. In the last month alone, infections have increased eightfold and deaths tenfold. According to experts, the actual death toll is probably much higher.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
The young, also beaten
This 35-year-old woman suffers from breathing difficulties due to COVID-19. Like many others, he waits his turn in front of the hospital for oxygen treatment. Scientists believe that a much more contagious “double mutation” of the coronavirus is spreading across the country.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
An extremely contagious variant
The family of a COVID-19 victim mourns her together in front of a New Delhi hospital morgue. The city’s top authority, Arvind Kejriwal, said the current variant is “particularly dangerous” and that people fall ill longer and more seriously.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
No room for the dead
The current crisis hits full force in overcrowded cemeteries and crematoriums. Burial surfaces are sold out in New Delhi. In other cities, funeral pyres light up the night sky.
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The darkest days of the pandemic in India
Slow vaccination
India’s vaccination program is being delayed. Only 10 percent of its population has received one dose, and 1.5 percent both doses. People over 18 years of age and older will be able to get vaccinated starting on Saturday.
