Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
February 14, 2023
According to a new study, the “LRRC15” receptor, present in our lungs, could help fight against the coronavirus.
This is great news for the scientific community. Researchers at the University of Sydney have found that a protein expressed by lung fibroblasts (“LRRC15”) would prevent Covid-19 infection. The results of this study are available in the journal PLOS Biology.
LRRC15 binds to coronavirus
Doctors have not stopped repeating it since the start of the pandemic: the inflammatory cascade induced by the coronavirus can be responsible for a worsening of the clinical condition, especially in people at risk.
“This is why it is necessary to block the penetration of the virus as high as possible in the respiratory tree, ideally at the ENT level, or if necessary, at the pulmonary level.“, specifies Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo.The aim is to prevent the virus from reaching the bloodstream and block the inflammatory cascade, because once it is triggered it is very difficult to reverse.“.
To prevent the virus from entering the lungs, researchers at the University of Sydney have found the solution. The LRRC15 receptor – a protein expressed by lung fibroblasts – appears to prevent infection.
“We discovered that this new receptor works by binding to the virus, “sequestering” it and this reduces the risk of infection“, explains Greg Neely, one of the authors in a communicated. “As an immunologist, the fact that there is this natural immune receptor that we didn’t know about, present in our lungs and blocking and containing the virus, it is very interesting”.
Concretely, the LRRC15 receptor would act like “molecular Velcro” on the tip of the virus, blocking its action.
“We think he [LRRC15] acts a bit like molecular Velcro, in that it sticks to the tip of the virus and pulls it away from target cell types”, reveals Dr. Lipin Loo, another author of the study.
LRRC15 receptor could indicate severity of infection
“When we stain healthy tissue lungs we don’t see a lot of LRRC15, but in COVID-19 lungs we see a lot more protein“, said Dr. Loo.
“We believe this newly identified protein may be part of our body’s natural response to fight infection by creating a barrier that physically separates the virus from our lung cells most susceptible to COVID-19.“.
The presence of LRRC15 could therefore be an important indication of the severity of an infection, because this protein plays a role in the “repair” of the lungs. The researchers discovered that this receptor controlled the body’s immune reactions to various infections, such as fibrosis.
“As this receptor can block Covid-19 infection and at the same time activate our body’s antiviral response against fibrosis, this is a really important new gene.”, relates Greg Neely.
Towards a new therapeutic avenue?
Thanks to this discovery, researchers now hope to develop new drugs; especially against fibrosis and other pulmonary infections.
“We can now use this new receptor to design broad-acting drugs that can block viral infection.“, conclude the researchers.