Scientists Announced The Journey Of The Coronavirus In The Body

What we know about the new deadly coronavirus causing COVID-19 is still very limited. It is therefore important to find out what the virus targets in our body and which paths it causes to infect. 

Here is the journey of the coronavirus through our body.

It cannot be said that we still know a lot about the new deadly coronavirus (COVID-19), which has spread around the world after it emerged in Wuhan, the People's Republic of China, causing 154,291 deaths. While scientists are trying to understand the structure of the virus in order to develop vaccines and drug treatments, it is very important to discover how the infection-causing virus travels and targets in our body.

Science magazine therefore wrote the story of the journey of the new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 from the moment it entered our body. Despite the fact that many scientific articles have already been written about COVID-19, the picture is still unclear, and Nancy Reau, a liver transplant doctor at COVID-19 treatments at the Rush University Medical Center, says they continue to learn about the virus.

Infection starts like this

The virus enters the body when someone else takes the droplets scattered by the SARS-CoV-2 carrier. SARS-CoV-2, which enters our nose and throat, finds a beautiful home in the nasal wall, uses ACE2 enzymes that are abundant in the cells in this region. ACE2 enzymes that normally regulate blood pressure are particles that the new coronavirus uses to enter our cells. SARS-CoV-2 enters our cells using this receptor and, after capturing the cell's machine, begins to invade other cells by copying itself.

If our immune system fails to repel SARS-CoV-2 in the first week of infection, the virus is heading towards the trachea to reach the lungs, where it can be fatal. The alveoli in our lungs, which take the carbon dioxide in the capillaries and deliver oxygen to the capillaries, are also rich in terms of ACE2 receptors. This leaves our lungs highly vulnerable to coronavirus.

Due to the immune system's fight against the virus, the capillaries that are expected to absorb oxygen and spread throughout the body cannot function. The white blood cells involved in the fight against infection kill infected viruses and leave a dead cell cemetery behind this process. This is the underlying cause and symptoms of pneumonia, cough, fever, and rapid and superficial breathing. Some COVID-19 patients are recovering at this point, but some are worsening and a condition called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) occurs. The amount of oxygen in the blood decreases greatly, and breathing becomes more and more difficult.

These patients need a ventilator and most of them die. Autopsies performed after the death of these patients showed that their alveoli were filled with fluid, white blood cells, mucus, and destroyed lung cells. Some doctors think that what this type of patients experience is caused by the 'cytokine storm'. The cytokine is known as chemical signaling molecules that enable us to give a healthy immune reflex under normal conditions. In the case of cytokine storm, some cytokines do more than necessary, and our immune system starts killing our healthy cells as well. Doctors think that some COVID-19 deaths may have been caused by this unconscionable response.

May cause organ failure

On the other hand, it should not be thought that SARS-CoV-2 only damages the lungs. Liver, kidney, intestine, brain, eyes, nose, heart, and vessels are also among the organs damaged by the deadly coronavirus. Heart damage was observed in 20% of 416 patients hospitalized in Wuhan. In another study conducted in Wuhan, 44% of 138 patients had rhythm disturbances.

Research in 138 COVID-19 patients in the Netherlands revealed abnormal blood clotting in 38%. If COVID-19 attacks blood vessels, then it may be determined why diabetes and high blood pressure patients are more affected because these diseases also damage the vessels beforehand. However, scientists still have not been able to pinpoint exactly why the virus is causing cardiovascular damage.

Another organ damaged by the virus is the kidney. In a study conducted in Wuhan, kidney failure was found in 27% of 85 patients. Again, in Wuhan and its vicinity, close to 200 patients found protein and blood in the urine of 59%, which indicates kidney failure. As for the brain, our knowledge is still limited because more neurologists need to investigate with the COVID-19 patient so that we can understand the damage the virus has done to the brain. However, symptoms of brain and central nervous system diseases are detected in COVID-19 patients. For example, a coronavirus was detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient with a meningitis in Japan.

In the case of a severe, it is thought that symptoms such as bloody diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain may occur due to COVID-19. These symptoms, which are thought to be due to tapeworm, combined with cough in some samples, confirmed the suspicion of coronavirus in tests.