New laboratory studies have revealed that cholesterol may help the coronavirus to infect human cells, and the results may explain why people with metabolic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, who often have high levels of cholesterol, constitute a disproportionate number. Of the patients who develop severe symptoms of the coronavirus are more at risk.
According to what was reported by the British newspaper The Daily Mail, researchers found that the Corona virus, can stick to cholesterol particles because it binds to normal cell receptors, which are called SR-B1.This helps position the pathogen so that its proteinaceous protein can bind to a receptor ACE2 , Which allows him to infect the cell.
A study published in Nature Metabolism by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences looked at the role of good cholesterol, known as high-density lipoproteins (HDL), in infection with the Coronavirus.
The study specifically looked at the SR-B1 receptor, which binds to cholesterol particles and is found in cells throughout the human body, including the lungs, as it targets the Coronavirus.
The study found that SARS-CoV-2 cannot directly exploit this receptor, but it can take advantage of the process of cholesterol binding to SR-B1 in order to infiltrate cells.
The viral spike on the coronavirus – the same thing that sticks to ACE2 – consists of two parts, called subunit 1 and subunit 2..
And in their experiments, Chinese scientists have found a subunit that one can bind to cholesterol, meaning that when cholesterol naturally passes into its receptor, it brings the coronavirus to the surface of the cell as well..
The researchers say this “enhances virus uptake” and the cholesterol receptor “facilitates the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells that express ACE2 by increasing virus binding.”
– .
