SARS-CoV-2 needs cholesterol to invade cells and form mega cells

[LiberalArkie]

by Meghan Rosen, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. JANUARY 22, 2021

People taking cholesterol-lowering drugs may fare better than others if they catch the novel coronavirus. A new study hints at why: the virus relies on the fatty molecule to get past the cell's protective membrane.


To cause COVID-19, the SARS-CoV-2 virus must force its way into people's cells—and it needs an accomplice. Cholesterol, the waxy compound better known for clogging arteries, helps the virus open cells up and slip inside, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Clifford Brangwynne's lab reports.

Without cholesterol, the virus cannot sneak past a cell's protective barrier and cause infection, the team writes in a preprint posted to bioRxiv.org on December 14, 2020. The work, which recreated the early stage of infection in lab-grown cells, has not yet undergone the scientific vetting process of peer review.

"Cholesterol is an integral part of the membranes that surround cells and some viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. It makes sense that it should be so important for infection," says Brangwynne, a biophysical engineer at Princeton University.

Snip

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-sars-cov-cholesterol-invade-cells-mega.html

[Karadeniz]

1. Rats! All the foods I like are high cholesterol... but I take a statin for it!

[Politicub]

2. Oh, great. Now there will be a run on statins. Scientific journal articles

are important to the field, but quickly get taken out of context when reduced to a sound bite by the general public.

[MineralMan]

3. The key word is "may."

People with Type O blood "may" be more resistant to infections, too. Also, Vitamin D "may" have a protective affect. Without research that clearly demonstrates the facts, "may" is always the word.

Even if you take cholesterol-lowering medications, there is still cholesterol in your blood stream. It is actually a necessary thing in our systems. While lowering levels can be beneficial, we all still have, and need, cholesterol in our bodies.

It's a mistake to make too much of these early articles on this kind of issue.

[DeminPennswoods]

4. Trump takes statins for cholesterol and

he was infected. So there's that.

[LizBeth]

5. I understand not the same but maybe why overweight people have a harder time.

[BGBD]

6. COVID is just a reincarnation of Jack Lalanne

It's here to get us all to take fitness seriously, avoid diabetes, and lower our cholesterol.

I'll not be able to see it in another light from now on.