All clear against new coronavirus

New virus: There is no immediate danger

04/04/2013

At first, the news was scary and meddled with media: "A new type of coronavirus affects the human respiratory tract just as effectively as the Sars virus". A patient from Abu Dhabi died in a clinic in Munich at the end of March.

Dangerous coronaviruses
Again and again messages appear that report on new, often very dangerous coronaviruses. Just a few months ago, information about a novel virus was spilling out of the UK. The Sars virus, which infected more than 8,000 people worldwide in 2003 and killed nearly 800 patients, is also likely to be in the public eye. The virus that infected the deceased patient in Munich is similar to the Sars virus.

all-clear
The Society for Virology sees the newly discovered virus "pose no immediate danger to the general public". They are "not dangerous," the researchers said this week. In contrast to at that time with the related Sars virus "an epidemic is not necessarily to be feared". The experts justify this with the transmission paths of the virus, which preferentially affects the deeper sections of the respiratory tract. „For a contagion therefore a close contact is necessary“, so the experts. The few transfers from person to person that have become known hitherto took place only among close family members.

Good treatment options
Marburg virologists published in the journal „Journal of Virology“ the results of a study that is positive. Although the novel virus effectively shuts down the body's own defense, it can be dealt with well with the active ingredient interferon. Interferons are proteins that are produced by the human body itself and are among the main components of the immune system. Infected cells stimulate the formation of a further 300 factors that turn against invaders. The defense function of interferon can be actively attenuated by the Sars virus or even completely eliminated, the scientists suspect. Eventually, even the transport of a signaling molecule into the cell nucleus is prevented. In that case, it would not help much to administer interferon. However, the disease can be treated effectively, as the new coronavirus, although much easier to penetrate into human cells than Sars, but can also be quickly contained by the body's interferons. Friedemann Weber from the Philipps University in Marburg says: „So the current virus isolate barely has the epidemic potential of Sars“.

Flu-like symptoms
Last year, the new virus appeared in the Middle East. So far, 17 cases have been reported worldwide and at least nine patients have died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Flu-like symptoms such as fever and chills are the first signs of the disease. However, the symptoms quickly go beyond the stage of influenza and acute respiratory distress occurs. In addition, there is the risk of kidney failure and thus there is a risk of death for the patient. On its way into the cells of the respiratory organs, the virus uses the receptor dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), a docking site known for viruses. The protein acts as a kind of door opener when the virus attaches to DPP4 in the respiratory tract. First, the virus enters the cell and then reprograms it and thereby further viruses are formed and released. This is the beginning of the infection chain. (Ad)

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