COVID-19 Alert! New Study Shows SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Targets And Destroys T Cells, Similarly As What HIV Does

COVID-19 Alert: To add to many studies already showing that the deadly and potent ways the SARS-Cov-2 has of attacking various human host cells and also critical proteins and cellular pathways in the human cells, a new collaborative study by researchers from the United States and China now shows that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus also attacks the T Lymphocytes similarly to the way that HIV viruses act.

(THIS RESARCH STUDY WAS RETRACTED BY THE RESEARCHERS FROM NATURE JOURNAL >>>THIS STUDY IS NO LONGER VALID)
 


The study has been published in the journal of Cellular & Molecular Immunology which is part of the credible Nature journals and has already been peer reviewed and also endorsed by many medical experts.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41423-020-0424-9
 
The human immune system has many components that work together in protecting the body from foreign invaders. One of the most important types of immune cells is T lymphocytes or T cells, a type of white blood cell that acts as the core of adaptive immunity, the system that modifies the immune response to specific pathogens.
 
Researchers from the New York Blood Centre and also from Fudan University in Shanghai have discovered that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which causes the COVID-19 disease that often results severe acute respiratory syndrome also attacks the immune system’s T lymphocytes. The worrying findings highlight the destructive power of the novel coronavirus, which can destroy the immune system, leaving the patient vulnerable and unable to fight off the infection.
 
The researchers’ surprise discovery has shed light on the potency of the novel coronavirus is killing powerful immune cells, which are supposed to kill the virus instead.
 
Already Thailand Medical News had warned about a mutated gene that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus had that  was similar to HIV virus and also a discovered manner it had in attacking human host cells using the furin cleavage that was also similar in the HIV virus in February 2020 but few researchers paid any attention to it. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-latestcoronavirus-research-reveals-that-the-virus-has-mutated-gene-similar-to-hiv-and-is-1,000-times-more-potent-
 
The researchers had studied the virus’s action on T-lymphocyte cell lines. T lymphocytes or T cells work by identifying and eliminating foreign invaders in the body.
 
The team arrived at their research findings by capturing cells infected by the virus that had penetrated their membrane, and injected toxic chemicals into the cells. It was observed that the chemicals killed both the virus and infected cells by disintegrating them.
 
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However, surprisingly, the researchers found that when the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus and the T cell came into contact with each other, the T cell became prey to the coronavirus, wherein a structure in the spike of the coronavirus triggered the attachment of a viral envelope to the cell membrane of the T cells. After, the genes of the virus entered the T cell and overwhelmed it and took it hostage, the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus deactivated its ability to protect the human host body.
 
The researchers also experimented with the SARS virus, and another coronavirus, but these pathogens were not able to infect T cells. The researchers suspect that the SARS virus, which caused an outbreak in 2002 to 2003, lacks a membrane fusion or binding function capability. The virus can only infect cells that have a particular receptor protein called the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). T cells contain only a few ACE2 receptor proteins.
 
The research is a major breakthrough as knowing the effect of the SARS-CoV-2 on T cells may show why the disease is spreading so quickly, and infecting so many across the world. It also explains why certain vulnerable populations are at a high risk of dying from the infection, including those who are more than 65, those who are immunocompromised, and those with underlying medical conditions like lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension.
 
Additional research also showed that patients who died from COVID-19 had damage to their bodies similar to both SARS and HIV. Also, the team found that unlike HIV that replicates faulty T cells, the coronavirus does not replicate, showing that the T cells and the virus may end up dying together.
 
The new study has also a lot of implications on recovered patients and also asymptomatic patients and their future health conditions as long as there are residual amounts of the coronavirus in their bodies.
 
One virologists who wanted to remain anonymous commented, “These findings show that we have a super potent virus that is evolving and behaving like an airborne HIV ‘cousin’!”
 
Thailand medical news will be reporting more developments on this study.

UPDATE: Another preprint study showing the same that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus targets the T-Cells including the CD4 cells. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.11.20062349v1.full.pdf+html
 
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