A considerable number of corona patients partially and usually temporarily lose their sense of smell. Scientists have now unraveled how this is possible.
The good news is that the coronavirus does not affect the nerve cells of the olfactory organ. That makes it unlikely that brain tissue will be damaged by the virus or that the loss of smell will be permanent. The virus does infect the supporting cells of the olfactory system, which were always thought to play a small role in our sense of smell.
“The infection of the supporting cells probably indirectly causes an abnormal functioning of the olfactory mucosa, and therefore a compromised sense of smell,” explains one of the lead researchers, Peter Mombaerts. “What we know for sure is that our body is constantly producing new support cells, which may explain the temporary nature of the loss of smell.”
The research was conducted by an international research team that included the participation of the Belgian hospitals UZ Leuven and AZ Sint-Jan Brugge-Oostende. The study appeared in the professional journal Cell.
