April 22, 2020 | 4: 47 pm
Researchers have determined the particular cells targeted by the coronavirus– a development they hope might be useful in the search for a cure, MIT announced Wednesday.
The group of scientists used an existing information set on the RNA found in different kinds of cells to find those with two proteins known to allow the virus to get in human cells, MIT said in a news release.
Right after the pandemic began, scientists learned that a viral “spike” protein binds to a particular receptor on human cells called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE2.
Another protein, an enzyme called TMPRSS2, aids to activate the coronavirus spike protein, enabling it to enter the cell.
The combined binding and activation allows the virus to enter host cells, MIT described. Now, researchers just needed to discover the particular cells that express these proteins that make them more susceptible to infection.
” As quickly as we realized that the role of these proteins had actually been biochemically verified, we started seeking to see where those genes remained in our existing datasets,” Jose Ordovas-Montanes, a senior author of the study who runs a laboratory at Boston Kid’s Medical facility, stated in the declaration.
” We were actually in a good position to begin to investigate which are the cells that this infection may really target.”
The datasets that the scientists used for the research study consisted of hundreds of cell types from the lungs, nasal passages, and intestine– all organs targeted by the infection.
The researchers discovered that Type II pneumocytes in the lungs, absorptive enterocytes in the intestinal tracts, and goblet secretory cells in the nasal passages were possible targets for the virus, the release said.
The Type II pneumocytes keep the lungs open; the absorptive enterocytes are responsible for the absorption of some nutrients; and the goblet secretory cells produce mucous.
” This may not be the complete story, but it certainly paints a much more exact picture than where the field stood in the past,” Ordovas-Montanes stated.
” Now we can state with some level of self-confidence that these receptors are expressed on these specific cells in these tissues.”
The scientists hope their findings will be valuable to researchers dealing with establishing treatments, or to those testing existing drugs that could be repurposed for COVID-19
” Our goal is to get details out to the community and to share data as quickly as is humanly possible, so that we can assist speed up ongoing efforts in the clinical and medical communities,” said Alex K. Shalek, an associate chemistry teacher at MIT.
The study, published in the journal Cell, was a partnership of scientists from MIT; the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard; and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, along with “colleagues from around the world.”
