The cells in your nose and throat may determine how COVID-19 affects you
EDMONTON -- A small preliminary study by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital suggests that people who develop severe COVID-19 have noticeably blunted antiviral responses in the nose and throat, where the body first encounters the virus., suggests that the body’s initial response in the nasopharynx – referred to by researchers as a key “battleground” located in the nose and throat – will help determine who develops severe disease and who will get through with mild illness.
They also obtained swabs from 17 control subjects and six patients who were intubated due to other illnesses. None of these subjects tested positive for COVID-19. Although the study’s sample size is limited, the data shows that the epithelial cells lining the nose and throat undergo major changes in the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
At the same time, their swabs had increased numbers of other immune cells that boost inflammatory responses."Everyone with severe COVID-19 had a blunted interferon response early on in their epithelial cells, and were never able to ramp up a defence," said Ordovas-Montanes.
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