Researchers have discovered a mechanism that could explain why patients with Coronavirus lose a sense of smell.
Published in Cell magazine, the new study has discovered that Covid-19 infection indirectly reduces the action of olfactory (OR) receptors, proteins located on the surface of nerve cells of nose that detect the molecules associated with odors
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A new study has discovered that coronavirus infection indirectly reduces the action of olfactory (OR) receptors, proteins located on the surface of the nerve cells of the nose that detect the molecules associated with odors.
Directed by researchers from the Grossman Faculty of Medicine at the University of New York and Columbia University, in the United States, the new study can also shed light on the effects of COVID-19 in other types of brain cells and other effects
Persistent neurologists of the Covid-19 as the “cerebral fog”, headaches and depression.
The experiments showed that the presence of the coronavirus near the nerve cells (neurons) in the olfactory tissue caused a wave of immune cells, microglia and T cells, which detect and counteract the infection.
These cells release proteins called cytokines that modify the genetic activity of olfactory nerve cells, although the virus can not infect them, say the study authors.
