Updated June 9, 2020, 5:26 p.m.
In the NDR podcast “Coronavirus Update” Christian Drosten talks about the importance of the nose in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease of COVID-19. In addition, the virologist explains how the virus could mutate and why it can give hope.
You see them again and again: people who wear mouth-nose protection, but have only put the mask over their mouths while the nose looks beyond. The name “mouth and nose protection” already says that this is not the purpose of a mask.
This could be a fatal mistake, especially in the current phase of the corona pandemic, as was discussed on Tuesday in the latest issue of the NDR podcast “Coronavirus Update” with virologist Christian Drosten.
Scientists are increasingly focusing on the nose, both in terms of the role of the olfactory organ in infection and in the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Drosten went through a study with science journalist Korinna Hennig on Tuesday, for which – to put it very simply – tissue samples were associated with SARS-CoV-2.
The nose as a good target organ
It was found that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus reproduced very well in the tissue samples from the nose. “So the nose is apparently a very good target organ for the SARS-2 virus,” said Drosten.
“Of course, letting your nose hang out of mouth-nose protection is not a good thing, you shouldn’t do that. We don’t need this study for that either,” explained the virologist, unable to help but smile: “Because no matter whether now the virus comes very deep from the lungs or from the throat or nose: it is not good if the nose is exposed, because mouth-nose protection should intercept everything that you exhale. “
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Since the study results indicate that the virus can replicate particularly well in the nose, the air exhaled from the nose seems to play a greater role in the transmission of the disease. “I think that when you exhale, a good amount of virus is excreted from the nose,” summarized the virus expert.
COVID-19 medication as a nasal spray?
So the nose could play a bigger role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but also in the treatment of COVID-19. Substances that have already demonstrated their effectiveness against the multiplication of the virus in the body, such as remdesivir, could theoretically be administered via the nose at an early stage of the disease.
“It is worth considering inhalation therapy, perhaps even vaccination later,” Drosten said. A nasal spray would be conceivable, for example, or an inhaler for the lungs. The advantage: the substance could act directly where the virus spreads and would not have to take the detour via the blood or the intestine into the affected tissue. “Pharmaceutical companies are currently working on rephrasing this,” said the head of the Institute of Virology at the Berlin Charité.
Drosten described such an approach to medication as “actually promising”.
Mutations can also be a glimmer of hope
In the further course of the podcast, the virology spoke in detail about possible mutations of the virus. “A phenotypic change that could happen would be that the virus replicates even better in the nose and is better transmitted, but in the nose we don’t get too sick of it. That means the whole thing becomes a cold in the long run, who is no longer interested in the lungs. That could happen, “Drosten called one of the options.
However, it would also be possible for serious illnesses to arise in the future. From a virus point of view, a harmless course would be an advantage, since slightly ill patients usually infect more people and contribute to the spread and thus also to the survival of the virus. “I believe that this is one of the drivers that experience has shown that virus epidemics become more harmless over time,” said Drosten.
If this effect also occurs with SARS-CoV-2, this would be another glimmer of hope in connection with the growing population immunity. “How we turn it around, the virus will definitely become more harmless. Already through population immunity alone. But maybe evolution also plays a role,” hoped Drosten.
About the expert: Professor Dr. Christian Drosten is head of the Institute of Virology at the Berlin Charité and one of the leading virus researchers in Germany. The 48-year-old is considered a co-discoverer of the SARS virus. Immediately after the SARS pandemic in 2003, he developed a test for the newly discovered virus, for which he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2005. In the current corona crisis, the native of Emsland is in demand as a conversation partner. In the “Corona Virus Update” he provides information on the current situation twice a week.
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