Patients care most about how COVID-19 affects their health and daily life, including for those with long COVID. Scientists focus on understanding the virus to find better treatments. Both views are important for dealing with the pandemic.
2) I'm bringing up this topic because, after talking so much about the disease, its long-term effects, treatments, and vaccines, many people have forgotten that we are dealing with the most dangerous virus humanity has ever faced.
4) They introduce a math tool that describes how matter shapes space and time. At low energies, this matches Einstein's theory, suggesting gravity is an effect of entropy, not a fundamental force. The equations also predict the universe's accelerated expansion better than before.
5) The concept of entropy and its relationship to gravity can potentially be useful in understanding biological processes, especially the action of viruses on the human body.
Here's how it could apply:
When a virus infects our body, it disrupts the normal, organized state ...
6) ..of our cells and biological systems.
The virus introduces disorder and chaos, increasing the entropy within our body.
Just like how increased entropy leads to a stronger gravitational pull in the physical world, this increase in biological entropy caused by the virus ...
7) ...can lead to harmful effects on our body.
For example, the disruptive nature of a virus cause our cells to malfunction, leading to inflammation, tissue damage, and other symptoms of illness. This is similar to how increased entropy leads to a stronger "pull"
8) Conversely, if our body is able to reduce the entropy caused by the virus - by mounting an effective immune response, for instance - it can help restore order and reduce the detrimental effects of the virus.
9) So the principles of entropy and its relationship to forces like gravity could provide a useful framework for understanding how viruses and other biological agents impact our bodies.
10) It's an interesting way to think about the underlying physics and order/disorder dynamics at play in biological systems.
We will see in a 2nd part, how this entropy is key for the evolution of the virus in humans.
Thanks for reading 🙏
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Organelles provide the possibility for the virus to organize its RNA in PROTECTED structures, concentrate REPLICATION machinery ... nature.com/articles/s4146…
2) ...compartmentalize the replication process, and hide from immune detection.
Figure 1g - The large perinuclear clusters of viral RNA demonstrate how the viral RNA is organized into PROTECTED structures.
2) Figure 3d- The nanoscale puncta of the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (nsp12) within and around the viral RNA clusters show the concentration of REPLICATION machinery.
SARS-CoV-2: The VIRUS That MASTERFULLY "ADAPTS" to SPREAD FURTHER !
If you were SARS-CoV-2, you could choose to spread in two ways: you could release a lot of tiny particles into the air to infect many people, or you could release just a few super infectious particles ...
2) ... that are really good at making someone sick.
This study published in Nature shows that some variants of the virus are especially strong, meaning they can infect with fewer particles, making it easier for them to spread quickly! nature.com/articles/s4429…
3) Researchers found that different variants of SARS-CoV-2, like Alpha, Delta, and Omicron, have unique abilities to spread. For instance, the Delta variant was shown to be more infectious, meaning it could spread more easily and required fewer viral particles to cause illness...
CORONAVIRUSES and the BRAIN:
Exploring Hidden Links to Neurological Diseases
Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) include seven types, with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-1, and SARS-CoV-2 being the most contagious and causing severe pandemics.
2) These viruses mainly affect the respiratory system, causing symptoms like cough, fever, and breathing difficulties.
Recent evidence suggests a link between HCoVs and brain disorders.
3) This study looks at how these viruses may be associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It also examines the long-term effects of HCoV infections and on similarities between HCoV proteins and those related to brain diseases.
The SARS-CoV-2 PUZZLE :
How Our Microbes Shape the Disease Picture ?
New technology called next-generation sequencing (NGS) shows that many germs can be present at the same time, affecting how diseases show up in people.
2) Instead of thinking one disease is caused by one germ, researchers now consider that multiple active germs can be involved, especially in illnesses like COVID-19.
The germs living in our bodies may play a role in how diseases develop.
3) This article looks at how these germs interact with viruses like Influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Changes in the types of germs present can affect the immune response and overall severity of the disease.
NO ENVELOPE, NO LETTER ? 🤔
Does removing the envelope gene make SARS-CoV-2 infection weaker ?
A modified virus without the Envelope (E) protein, known as ΔE, produces fewer viral particles despite having more Spike proteins on the cell surface. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
2) This happens because the E protein plays a crucial role in the assembly and release of new virus particles.
When the E protein is absent, the virus struggles to efficiently package the Spike proteins into new viral particles.
3) Instead, more Spike proteins accumulate on the surface of the host cells. Although these Spike proteins facilitate cell-to-cell transmission and help the virus enter other cells, the lack of E disrupts the overall process of forming and releasing complete virus particles ...