Why in News?

• Scientists have decoded how coronavirus quickly damages lung cells.

How does it infect?

• Scientists have created one of the most comprehensive maps to date of the molecular activities that are triggered inside the lung cells at the onset of the viral infection.
• In the latest research, scientists simultaneously infected tens of thousands of lab-grown human lung cells with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and tracked what happens in these cells during the moments after infection.
• The scientists found that when SARS-CoV-2 takes over, it completely changes the cells’ metabolic processes. The virus even damages the cells’ nuclear membranes within three to six hours after infection.
• The scientists explained that the cell’s nuclear membrane surrounds the nucleus, which holds the majority of the genetic information, and controls and regulates normal cellular functions.
• With the nucleus compromised by the coronavirus, things rapidly take a bad turn for the entire cell.
• The lung cells — which normally play a role in maintaining the essential gas exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that occurs when we breathe —die under this siege.
• The cells also emit distress signals which boost inflammation as they die, triggering a cascade of biological activity that accelerates more cell death.
• This eventually leads to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, and lung failure.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/scientists-decode-how-coronavirus-quickly-damages-lung-cells/article33715272.ece