A recent study by researchers at the University of Missouri has identified a critical protein called occludin in the human body that facilitates the spread of the coronavirus from cell to cell after infection. This breakthrough knowledge could play a vital role in the development of new antiviral drugs that can combat the virus’s transmission. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study notes that occludin mediates the transmission of the virus between cells, and when it is damaged by the virus, the infection can spread rapidly to the neighboring cells, exacerbating the symptoms. The researchers noted that understanding the underlying mechanisms of disease progression inside the body’s cells is crucial to finding the proper countermeasures to combat the virus. This new insight could help developers examine the potential impact of antiviral drugs in strengthening the occludin protein against infection. In the future, the team plans to study how other viral infections also impact the occludin protein to understand how viruses interact with the hosts they infect. Overall, this knowledge will encourage the development of new therapies to stop the spread of coronavirus.
