By Syndicated Content
By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) – Here is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.
Lung diseases worsen COVID-19 by altering airway genes
New findings shed light on why chronic lung diseases that block the airways – such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis – increase patients’ risks for severe COVID-19. The diseases cause genetic changes in the epithelial cells that line the airways, making the cells more vulnerable to attack from the coronavirus, researchers reported on Wednesday in Nature Communications https://go.nature.com/3kmjsYy. Laboratory studies of these cells found changes in their molecular makeup that likely make it easier for the virus to enter the body, make copies of itself, and trigger out-of-control immune responses that fill the lungs with fluid and cause severe organ damage. The researchers, led by Nicholas Banovich at Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, were only able to examine cells from lung-disease patients without COVID-19 but said their “study highlights crucial areas for future research.”