When you’re dealing with a new coronavirus that forces a whole planet into lockdown and to all sorts of restrictions, it’s obvious that you can’t take it too lightly. The high infectiousness and the global death toll of over 516,000 people are enough serious arguments that the world is dealing with a significant scourge.
New observations surface from an international team led by scientists from the University of California, San Francisco. They reveal to us new insight for how significant this global scourge is.
Newly infected cell grows multi-pronged tentacles filled with viral particles
Researchers who had been exploring how the new coronavirus behaves in its hosts have discovered something creepy. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters into a human cell, the ghoulish transformation begins.
The disfigured ‘zombie cells’ are using filopodia to reach neighboring cells that are still healthy. The protuberances are perforating into the cells’ bodies and what’s next is the injection of the viral venom directly into the genetic command centers of those cells. The outcome is that the newly sprouted dendrites are boosting efficiency when it comes to capturing new cells and establishing infection for human victims.
According to the info provided by worldometers.info, there are over 10.5 million total infections with the COVID-19 disease since the start of the pandemic. The death toll counts over 516,000 people, but there is also some good news: more than 5.8 million of the infected people had been recovered. The most affected country by the pandemic remains the US with over 2.7 million cases and more than 130,000 deaths. Brazil is the second on top, having over 1.4 million infected people and almost 60,000 deaths. The country where the pandemic started, China, now occupies only the 22nd place in the top of the most affected countries by COVID-19.
The new research was published in the journal Cell.