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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaScience

Coronavirus may exploit our own immune system against us, find researchers

  • Scientists speculate that virus might be exploiting our normal protective response
  • Knowing how infected cells work can help understand the virus life cycle: researcher

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Researchers writing in the science journal Cell have outlined how interferons may stimulate the ACE2 gene, potentially allowing the new coronavirus to infect a greater number of cells. Photo: US National Institutes of Health via AP
Sarah Zheng
The virus behind the Covid-19 global pandemic may be infecting humans by exploiting a key part of our body’s defence system, according to a new study.
Researchers have built on previous findings the new coronavirus targets and then enters cells mainly through the ACE2 receptor, aided by an enzyme known as TMPRSS2.

Now, a team of researchers – including scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University – has gone further and found that ACE2 receptors might be stimulated by the body’s immune system, opening more doors for the virus.

The scientists detailed how interferons – proteins that alert other cells to the presence of viruses – have been found to stimulate the ACE2 gene, potentially allowing the virus to infect a greater number of cells.

The team published its findings about Sars-CoV-2, the scientific name for the new coronavirus, in the journal Cell last Tuesday.

Jose Ordovas-Montanes, a research scientist from the Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard who led the study, described the role of ACE2 and why it might be vulnerable to Covid-19, a pneumonia-like disease.

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