In severe cases of COVID-19, damage can spread beyond the lungs and into other organs, such as the heart, liver, kidney, and parts of the neurological system.
Beyond these specific sets of organs, however, the virus seems to lack impact.
In a new study, researchers aimed to uncover an explanation as to how it is possible for these damages to propagate selectively rather than affecting the entire body.
The research was conducted by a team from the University of Zaragoza and Agencia Aragonesa para la Investigación Foundation in Spain.
In order to enter human cells, the coronavirus relies on interactions with an abundant protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2.
This receptor is ubiquitous in most human organs, such that if the virus is circulating in the body, it can also enter into other organs and affect them.
However, the virus affects some organs selectively and not all, as expected from these potential mechanisms.
Once inside a human cell, the virus’s proteins interact with those in the body, allowing for its effects to cultivate.
COVID-19 damages only a subset of organs. To uncover a plausible route, the team considered the displacements of proteins prevalent in the lungs and how they interact with proteins in other organs.
Proteins in a cell face several crowded obstacles they must overcome in order to interact. Adding to the complexity of the process, some proteins exist within the same cell or organ, but others do not.
The team developed a mathematical model that allowed him to find a group of 59 proteins within the lungs that act as the primary activators affecting other human organs.
A chain of interactions, beginning with this set, triggers changes in proteins down the line, ultimately impacting their health.
The team says targeting some of these proteins in the lungs with existing drugs will prevent the perturbation of the proteins expressed in organs other than the lungs, avoiding multiorgan failure, which, in many cases, conduces the death of the patient.
How the affected proteins travel between organs remains an open question that the team is dedicating for future studies.
One author of the study is Ernesto Estrada from the University of Zaragoza.
The study is published in the journal Chaos.
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