Richard Boucher, MD, discussed a major new scientific study that shows the coronavirus first infects the nasal passages, where cells have more of a protein that the virus needs to attach itself.
“If the nose is the dominant initial site from which lung infections are seeded, then the widespread use of masks to protect the nasal passages, as well as any therapeutic strategies that reduce virus in the nose, such as nasal irrigation or antiviral nasal sprays, could be beneficial,” said Boucher in , who co-authored the study with Ralph Baric, PhD.
The article points out that researchers found some airway cells weren’t infected, which was intriguing, and suggests that “unknown factors in airway cells determine how the infection progresses and may explain why some people get sicker than others and why some people have no symptoms at all.”
Boucher is the James C. Moeser Eminent Professor of Medicine in the division of pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine, and director of the 黑料网 Marsico Lung Institute.
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