Research reveals that coronavirus has mutated gene similar to HIV
According to Chinese health
experts, the new corona pneumonia virus and the AIDS virus – HIV, have something
in common, they attack the body's immune system. This was discovered after the autopsy report on 20 people died from the virus confirmed after the analysis.
The 20 autopsy report confirmed that their immune systems are almost
completely destroyed. The destruction pattern of internal organs is similar to
the combination of severe acute respiratory syndrome - SARS and AIDS.
According to a published analysis of the report, a paper published in "Cellular and Molecular Immunology" by
researchers from the New York Blood Center and Fudan University in Shanghai,
the process of the Wuhan pneumonia virus infection mechanism and the front line phenomenon are consistent.
T lymphocytes, also called T cells, in the human body are mainly responsible for identifying and eliminating
foreign invaders in the body, and are the core role of the immune
system.
According to the instructions of this paper, T lymphocytes
researchers cultured in the laboratory, adding a live virus pneumonia in
Wuhan, the scientists found, T
cells become prey to coronavirus.
The researchers found a unique
structure in the spike protein of the virus. When the virus contacts the T
cell, it seems to trigger the fusion of the virus membrane and the cell membrane;
then, after the virus gene enters the T cell, the cell loses protection and
antiviral function, so that the
entire immune system crashes.
The researchers conducted the same
experiment on severe acute respiratory syndrome or another coronavirus SARS. As
a result, they found that although the SARS virus is the same type of new
coronavirus, they do not have the ability to infect T cells; they suspect that
the reason SARS virus lacks membrane fusion function.
After the outbreak of SARS in 2003,
it did not cause a pandemic again. According to the research of scientists,
SARS virus can only infect cells carrying a specific receptor protein called
ACE2 and the protein is extremely low in T cells.
The researchers said in this the research paper that such findings are expected to help the world face Wuhan in
the fight against pneumonia and provide a new idea
A doctor in a public hospital in
Beijing who treated pneumonia in Wuhan said in an anonymous interview that the finding has become the latest evidence of growing concerns in the clinical
medicine community.
In the front line of the fight against SARS, health care workers have long
suspected Wuhan pneumonia virus in the clinical manifestations
of, and the most notorious human
HIV virus attacks are very similar.
According to the 'South China
Morning Post,' the 'Chinese People's Liberation Army Immunology
Institute' issued a clinical report in February warning that the number of
T cells in patients with pneumonia in Wuhan may decline significantly, especially for those who are older or require
intensive care patients treated in the laboratory; the lower the patient's T
cell count, the higher the risk of death.
Scientists are puzzled that the
genes behind the fusion function with T cells have not been found in other
coronaviruses in humans or animals. Similar sequences.
However, according to this new
study, there is a major difference between the Wuhan virus and HIV. HIV can replicate in T cells, and
at the same time continue to produce more replicating HIV viruses to infect
other cells.
But the scientists of this study found that Wuhan virus did
not observe any growth of coronavirus after entering T cells; Wuhan virus and T cells may eventually die
together.
However, this study also raises
some new questions. For example, the new coronavirus can be present in
some patients for several weeks without causing any symptoms. How these
patients interact with T cells in the body requires further research.
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