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in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
July 26, 2022
Researchers at the Institut Pasteur made an astonishing discovery by observing how the virus moved between cells in the brain and cells that normally line the nose. The virus stimulates them to create nanotubes to infect brain cells. The next step is to succeed in blocking the formation of these “mini-tunnels”.
The study, led by Chiara Zurzolo and published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, sought to understand how the coronavirus manages to migrate to the brain. And the results turned out to be quite amazing.
The coronavirus borrows “tunnels” to reach the brain
To understand the path of SARS-CoV-2, scientists placed two types of cells in a box.
“One, called SH-SY5Y, was used to model human brain cells; the other, Vero E6, to model the cells that line the surfaces of the body, including the nose”says the study.
Interesting fact: while the brain cells should not have been infected during this test (because they do not have ACE2 receptors, necessary for the entry of the virus into the cells), the researchers noticed that they still good summer.
The reason ? After infecting the nasal cells, the viruses stimulated them to “that they grew tiny tubes, called tunneling nanotubes, that formed connections with brain cells.”.
Using an electron microscope, the researchers found that the coronavirus used these tunnels to shuttle between the two types of cells.
These “passages” would therefore explain how the coronavirus migrates to the brain.
“This is an interesting lead, because it can explain the appearance of the symptoms of Covid-19, and in particular perhaps those of long Covid. It is also a promising new therapeutic route because it could make it possible to block the penetration of the virus. Finally, the way the virus “tunnels” into the ENT sphere could partly explain the immunity problems and the low levels of antibodies in the blood”reveals Dr. Kierzek.
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Drugs could soon be developed
These first promising observations must now be confirmed “in real life”, that is to say inside the human brain, and not in the laboratory.
Furthermore, if it turns out that the nanotubes do transport the coronavirus in this way to the brain, drugs to block this process could be developed.
“For the moment, we do not have a specific molecule blocking tunneling nanotubes, but we are carrying out screenings to find some.“, reveals with enthusiasm Chiara Zurzolo.