North East Rising

How COVID kills, Dec 14: Scientists have decoded the chain of molecular responses of human lung cells to infection to understand exactly how COVID kills us slowly, an advance which may aid in the identification of clinically approved medications that can be re-purposed for COVID-19 treatment.

The study said, “assessed engineered cells of the human lungs’ air sacks using precise mass spectrometry technology that can characterize the molecules present in samples“.

Based on the analysis, the scientists from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in the US, identified proteins and pathways of molecules in lung cells whose levels change upon infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

It is believed the findings provide insights into disease pathology and new therapeutic targets to block COVID-19.

They found that a crucial type of protein modification called “phosphorylation” becomes aberrant in these infected lung cells, mainly answering how COVID kills humans.

According to the study, phosphorylation of proteins plays a major role in regulating protein function inside the cells of an organism.

It is to be noted that both protein abundance and protein phosphorylation is typically a highly controlled process in the case of healthy cells.

However, the scientists discovered that SARS-CoV-2 throws the lung cells into disarray, causing abnormal changes in protein amounts and frequency of protein phosphorylation inside these cells.

These abnormal changes, the scientists said, help the virus to multiply — eventually destroying the cells and resulting in widespread lung injury.

Upon infection, the researchers said the coronavirus rapidly begins to exploit the cell’s core resources, which are otherwise required for the cell’s normal growth and function.

“The virus uses these resources to proliferate while evading attack by the body’s immune system. In this way new viruses form which subsequently exit the exhausted and brutally damaged lung cells, leaving them to self-destruct,” said Andrew Emili, study co-author from BUSM.

“These new viruses then infect other cells, where the same cycle is repeated,” Emili explained.

In the study asking the question how COVID kills humans, the scientists examined lung alveolar cells from one to 24 hours after infection with SARS-CoV-2 to understand what changes occur in these cells immediately — at one, three, and six hours after infection by SARS-CoV-2 — and what changes occur later — at 24 hours after infection.

“Our results showed that in comparison to normal/uninfected lung cells, SARS-CoV-2 infected lung cells showed dramatic changes in the abundance of thousands of proteins and phosphorylation events,” said Darrell Kotton, study co-author and professor of pathology & laboratory medicine at BUSM.

“Moreover, our data also showed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus induces a significant number of these changes as early as one-hour post-infection and lays the foundation for a complete hijack of the host lung cells” added Elke Muhlberger, another co-author of the study.

The researchers also identified at least 18 pre-existing clinically approved drugs which were developed originally for other medical conditions that could be re-purposed for use towards COVID-19 therapy.

They believe further studies can shed light on the potential of these drugs to block the proliferation of the novel coronavirus in human lung cells.

JP Nadda, Dec 13: Jagat Prakash Nadda, the national president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Sunday, said that he has tested positive for novel coronavirus.

“On getting the initial symptoms of the coronavirus, I got the test done and the report came back positive. My health is fine, following all the guidelines in home isolation on the advice of doctors. My request is, whoever has come in contact in the last few days, please isolate yourself and get yourself checked,” JP Nadda wrote on social media platform Twitter.

कोरोना के शुरूआती लक्षण दिखने पर मैंने टेस्ट करवाया और रिपोर्ट पॉजिटिव आई है। मेरी तबीयत ठीक है, डॉक्टर्स की सलाह पर होम आइसोलेशन में सभी दिशा- निर्देशो का पालन कर रहा हूँ। मेरा अनुरोध है, जो भी लोग गत कुछ दिनों में संपर्क में आयें हैं, कृपया स्वयं को आइसोलेट कर अपनी जाँच करवाएं।

— Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) December 13, 2020

Nadda’s convoy was pelted with stones last week by alleged Trinamool Congress workers at Sirakol in Diamond Harbour area of South 24 Parganas district, where he had gone to address a rally. Nadda called the attack “unprecedented” and alleged the state has slipped into “complete lawlessness and goonda raj“.

All BJP leaders in the convoy had been injured in the attack, except Nadda as he was in a bullet-proof car, Mukul Roy, national vice-president of BJP said.

India reported 30,254 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, according to the data released by the Union ministry of health and family welfare. With 391 new deaths, India’s COVID-19 death toll climbed to 1, 43,019. The active number of coronavirus cases continued to decline. At present, India has 3.6 lakh active coronavirus cases.

The total number of recovered coronavirus patients stood at 93, 57,464.