Chaos: Why does COVID-19 only affect the function of certain organs in the host body?

August 13, 2020 // -- In severe cases of COVID-19, damage not only spreads to lung tissue, but also to other organs, such as the heart, liver, kidneys, and parts of the nervous system, but SARS-CoV-2 does not appear to affect other organs except for these specific types of organs.
Photo Source: Ernesto Estrada In a recent study published in the international journal Chaos, scientists from the University of Zaragoza and others explained how the damage caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread selectively without affecting the entire host body;
Researcher Estrada said that in most human organs, the subjects are all over the place, and if the virus circulates in the host body, it can enter other organs and affect the function of the organ, however, the virus selectively affects the function of certain organs, not all organs, which may depend on the special mechanisms used.
Once in human cells, the proteins of the virus interact with the proteins in the host body, making it easier to survive in the host body, and SARS-CoV-2 only damages parts of the organ, suggesting that the route of transmission may not be the same, and in order to identify a reasonable pathway, the researchers took into account the protein displacement that is prevalent in lung tissue and how it interacts with proteins in other organs.
Researchers say that in order for two proteins to find each other and form a complex that interacts with each other, they need to enter the cells in a sub-diffusion way; the researchers describe the diffusion as a drunken man walking on a crowded street, where the crowd creates mobility barriers for the drunk and prevents them from moving, making it difficult to reach their destination.
Again, there are many crowded obstacles to interaction between proteins in cells, and what makes this process complicated is that some proteins are present in a unified cell or organ, while others do not.
With these factors in mind, the researchers developed a mathematical model that could help find a group of 59 proteins in the lungs that act as the primary activators that affect the function of other human organs, and then a series of interactions begin with this group of proteins, which induce protein changes that ultimately affect their function.
Using current drugs to target parts of these proteins that act on the lungs may prevent interference with the expression of proteins in organs other than the lungs, as well as avoid multi-organ failure, which in many patients often leads to direct death.
later this year, researchers will use more in-depth research to explain how these affected proteins move between organs.
() original source: Ernesto Estradaa. Fractional diffusion on the human proteome as an alternative to the multi-organ of SARS CoV-2, Chaos 30, 081104 (2020) doi:10.1063/5.0015626.