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

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.