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New laboratory studies have revealed that cholesterol can help coronavirus infect human cells, and the findings could explain why people with metabolic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, who often have high cholesterol levels, make up a disproportionate number. Among patients who have severe coronavirus symptoms are most at risk.
According to the British newspaper The Daily Mail, researchers have discovered that the Corona virus can attach itself to cholesterol particles because it binds to normal cell receptors, which are called SR-B1.This helps position the pathogen so that its protein protein can bind to a receptor ACE2 , Which allows it to infect the cell.
A study published in Nature Metabolism by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences examined the role of good cholesterol, known as high-density lipoprotein (HDL), in coronavirus infection.
The study specifically looked at the SR-B1 receptor, which binds to cholesterol particles and is found in cells throughout the human body, including the lungs, as it targets Coronavirus.
The study found that SARS-CoV-2 cannot directly exploit this receptor, but it can use the SR-B1 binding process for cholesterol to infiltrate cells.
The viral spike on the coronavirus – the same thing that attaches to ACE2 – consists of two parts, called subunit 1 and subunit 2..
And in their experiments, Chinese scientists have found a subunit that can bind to cholesterol, meaning that when cholesterol naturally passes into its receptor, it also carries the coronavirus to the cell surface..
The researchers say this “increases virus uptake” and the cholesterol receptor “facilitates the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into ACE2-expressing cells by increasing virus binding.”
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