Virologists explain what the coronavirus does to the body

Coronavirus «coronaviruses» belong to a group of viruses that infect animals, and its name is derived from its crown-like or aura-like appearance, as it contains bulbs of bulbs that emerge from its surface and give it a distinctive look. COVID-19 disease was caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-Cove-2.

Coronavirus infection is in one of two ways: either an infection in the lungs causes some cases that people call colds or an infection in the intestine that causes diarrhea.

COVID-19 disease begins in the lungs, as is a common "cold" that is also caused by coronaviruses but then causes immune system sabotage which can lead to death or long-term lung damage.

Genetically, the SARS-Cove-2 virus is very similar to other coronaviruses that affect the human respiratory system, such as the Coronavirus associated with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Cove), and the Coronavirus associated with the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-Cove virus). However, subtle genetic differences translate into significant and significant differences in how easily the new coronavirus affects humans and how they become ill.

The SARS-Cove-2 virus contains the same genetic features as the original SARS-Cove virus - which caused a global outbreak in 2003 - but with about 6,000 mutations present in places where coronaviruses usually change.

Compared to another human coronavirus like Mers-Cove that caused the respiratory syndrome in the Middle East in 2012, the new virus modified copies of the same genetic features to invade cells and copy itself.

However, the SARS-Cove-2 virus contains a completely different set of genes called attachments, which give this new virus small advantages in certain situations. The MERS virus contains a special protein that stops the cell from issuing alerts about the viral invasion of the body.

How does the virus infect the body?

Each infection with the Coronavirus begins with the introduction of the viral particle, a spherical shell that protects a single long chain carrying the genetic material of the virus, which the virus enters into the human cell. The genetic material directs the cell to make about 30 different parts of the virus, allowing the virus to reproduce and reproduce itself.

Cells that the SARS-Cove-2 virus prefers to have in it contain an external protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, which plays an important role in regulating blood pressure.

The infection begins when the long itch proteins, which protrude from the viral particle, attach to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in the human cell. After this adhesion, the Hasake proteins unfold, change their shape, and reshape themselves using springy, coiled parts located in their center.

Al-Hasake proteins - which reconfigured themselves - enter the cell and then degrade them and the viral particle together, forming a channel that allows the genetic material of the virus to enter the cell.

The SARS-Cove-2 virus spreads from one person to another through close contact, and the outbreak that occurred in Chinchongi Church in South Korea in February gives a good idea of ​​how the virus has spread and how quickly it has spread, as it appears that two people infected with the virus sat face-to-face near From uninfected people for several minutes in a crowded room, and within two weeks several thousand people were injured in the country, and more than half of the injuries at the time were attributed to the church.

The outbreak began quickly, because public health authorities were not aware of a potential outbreak, and did not conduct the necessary tests much at that point, and since then the authorities have worked well, and new cases in South Korea have steadily decreased.

How does the virus cause illness in people?

The SARS-Cove-2 virus grows in type II lung cells, which secrete a soap-like substance that helps air flow deep into the lungs, and it also grows in the cells lining the throat. As in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), most of the damage caused by COVID-19 disease is caused by the immune system, which reacts very strongly to prevent the virus from spreading, as millions of immune cells invade the affected lung tissue, and may cause significant damage in the cleaning process. The virus and any infected cells.

The challenge facing health care workers treating COVID-19 patients is how able they are to support the patient's body and maintain his blood oxygenation while the lung is restoring itself.

The severity of infection with the new virus varies among patients, as it appears that patients under the age of 10 years get rid of the virus easily, while most people under the age of 40 years quickly restore their health, but the elderly suffer severely.

After entering the virus, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 does not function well in regulating blood pressure, so COVID-19 is more severe in people with high blood pressure.

The SARS-Cove-2 virus is partly more severe than seasonal influenza viruses because it follows several methods that prevent cells from responding to infection and alert the immune system, such as inhibiting the production of interferons (a protein produced by the affected cell in response to its viral invasion) or removing it from the cell if it is produced, And that is before he starts his work, so COVID-19 worsens over a month and causes slight damage every day. As for the flu, patients recover in less than a week.

At present, the transmission rate of the SARS-Cove-2 virus is slightly higher than the transmission rate of the H1N1 flu virus, which caused a pandemic in 2009, but the SARS-Cove-2 virus is at least ten times more deadly.

From the information now available, COVID-19 disease appears to be very similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), although it is not likely to be severe as SARS.

There is still a lot of mystery about the new coronavirus and coronaviruses in general, such as the small differences in how the disease occurs, how the virus interacts with the proteins within the cell, the structure of the proteins that make up the new viruses, and how the mechanisms of cloning the virus work.

Another mysterious thing is how COVID-19 will respond to changes in the following seasons or seasons? Flu appears in cold weather in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Some other coronavirus spread to a low level throughout the year, but it appears to have peaked in the spring. However, no one knows exactly why these viruses vary by season!

The good thing that appeared in the spread of COVID-19 disease is good science that emerged very quickly, such as knowing the structures of the proteins of the itch for the new virus and how they bind to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 present in the human cell infected with the virus, and all that after only one month of the availability of the genetic chain Virus-specific.

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