Coronavirus infection can settle in the mouth
Last reviewed: 04.09.2021
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Coronavirus COVID-19 is introduced into the gum and glandular cell structures, after which it stays there and develops comfortably.
Previously, the infection has already been detected in the lung and bronchial cells, as well as in the structures of the intestines, brain, and kidneys. Now experts from the American National Institutes of Health were able to detect the pathogen in the oral cavity, as they wrote in the pages of Nature Medicine.
It is a known fact that SARS-Cov-2 is found in salivary secretions. Therefore, the study of this secret is often used to diagnose coronavirus infection, along with a nasopharyngeal smear. But until now, scientists did not quite understand exactly by what mechanism the virus enters the salivary fluid. At first, it was assumed that it enters the saliva from the nasopharynx, or together with the sputum secretions from the bronchopulmonary system. However, the coronavirus in salivary secretions was also found in those patients who did not have any signs of respiratory tract damage, and their infection was asymptomatic.
In order to get inside the cell, the coronavirus needs a pair of cellular proteins: TMPRSS2 and ACE2. In the course of interaction with these proteins, which are localized on the outer membrane of the cell, the infectious pathogen opens up the opportunity for itself to get into it. Experts have found that in both the first and second proteins, genes are activated in individual cells of the gingival mucosa and saliva-producing glands. Such activity is in no way inferior to the activity of genes in the nasopharyngeal structures, and it is there that the pathogen gets without much difficulty.
Through tests, scientists were able to confirm: the coronavirus can inhabit the glandular tissue responsible for salivation. During the study, tissue samples were taken from patients with coronavirus infection. The researchers found a large amount of viral RNA in them, which led to the conclusion: the causative agent of COVID-19 not only enters the glandular cells, but also develops and multiplies quite comfortably there.
Next, scientists studied the history of the disease in a large group of patients with an overt and asymptomatic course of coronavirus infection. It was found that the virus invaded the cells of the oral cavity and caused the loss of taste and smell. It turns out that the virus used the gum and glandular tissues as an additional storage and distribution reservoir. Nevertheless, in some patients, the tissues of the oral cavity were not filled with the pathogen, which indicates the need to search for factors that contribute to the settling of the infection. Research on this issue is ongoing.
Primary source of information: journal Nature